You shall be wholehearted with the Eternal your God,” is a verse from this week’s Torah portion, parshat Shofim. This charge is tucked away in the middle of this week’s reading. Easily overlooked, since it is only five Hebrew words, this short verse packs a punch and sheds great light on the Torah’s entire philosophy of life.
To the age-old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” our Talmud offers an answer on page 26a of tractate Rosh Hashanah. Now which came first, the Written Torah or the Oral Torah? This week’s Torah portion, Re’eh, offers some guidance.
An important philosophical debate with practical implications for daily prayer arises from a verse in this week’s Torah portion, Eikev. This debate is recorded in the tractate of Talmud, Yoma, 69b (the tractate is named for Yom Kippur, “The Day.”) In this debate we find none other than the prophets Jeremiah and Daniel arguing with the other rabbis of the “Great Assembly.” This distinct title was given to that Sanhedrin (Supreme Court) of 120 prophets and scholars on high that included Mordecai, Ezra, and Nechemiah. Their debate centered on whether or not to include two words in the daily prayer. What were the words and why the debate?
Many years ago, the Nobel Prize winner, mathematician, and thinker, Bertrand Russell, was interviewed by Look Magazine. The topic of the interview was Russell’s well-known position on agnosticism to which he lent his enormous intellectual powers to support. After many questions, Russell was finally asked, “What kind of evidence would convince you that God exists?” This week’s Torah portion, Ve’etchanan, records the event that provides evidence that would even satisfy Russell.
In his great wisdom, King Solomon stated in the beginning of Ecclesiastes “There is nothing new beneath the sun.” Since human nature does not change over time, the way modern man deals with current events is no different from how past generations handled the events of their time.
This week’s Torah portion, Balak, records another formative event that took place toward the end of the Israelites’ 40-year stay in the desert. The Torah reading begins by introducing us to Balak, the king of the neighboring country of Moav. The narrative relates, “Balak became terrified and disgusted because of the Jewish nation.” (Bamidbar 22:3). This poses two questions: Why was Balak afraid of the Israelites and why was he disgusted by them?
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