see http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/haman-on-the-couch/ for something I wrote in honor of Purim this year, making an effort to peer into the mind of Haman, everyone's favorite Purim villain. Purim Sameach!
From the Shofar Newsletter May 2013 What’s the Hebrew word for ‘husband’? Actually, you have two choices. Both are in use in Hebrew today. and both were used in the time of the bible. The first word is ‘ ba’al ’. If a woman in Israel today wants to refer to her husband, she might refer to him as ‘ ba’ali ’ - ‘my husband.’ But if you know Hebrew, you know that the same word ‘ baal ’ can mean ‘owner.’ For example, ‘ ba’al ha-bayit ’ means ‘home-owner’ or ‘master of the house.’ And more insidiously, the owner of a slave is also referred to in the bible as ‘ baal ’. So you can see this term’s etymological origin. It is a relic of a time when a woman’s relationship with her husband wasn’t that different from the relationship between a servant and master. There are some people who won’t use the word baal on principle for this reason. So what word would they use instead? The word ‘ ish ’. Most liter...
At our synagogue's congregational seders for the last several years, we have played the following game: I have collected unusual Pesach stories, and shared three such stories with the community: two true stories, and one fictional story. Participants then have to guess which two stories are true and which one is false. (If you listen to Wait, wait, don't tell me, you get the idea, except that only one story is false.) You can see previous editions of this game here http://rabbischeinberg.blogspot.com/search?q=trivia . This is what was presented at our congregational seder in 2024. Two stories are true; one is fictional. Answers at the bottom! (Note: All photos inspired by the stories were created by AI. ) Story #1: Why do we dip a green vegetable in salt water at the beginning of the seder? The most popular answer is that the salt water recalls the tears of our ancestors in slavery in Egypt. But there’s another answer: The Tor...
Every so often I will get a question from someone in this community or outside of it, of the form “Rabbi, what does Judaism say about X?” Like “What does Judaism say about genetically modified organisms?” Or “What does Judaism say about Snapchat?” The answer, of course, is that the Torah and other classical Jewish texts basically doesn’t say anything about any of these issues. However, the Torah includes ethical teachings that can shed light on all of these issues. In this vein, a question on my mind over the last few months is: What does the Torah say about insurance? Ostensibly, the answer is nothing. The first insurance contracts date from the 14th century. The idea that you would pay a small amount of money on a regular basis, to someone who would pay you a lot of money to help you if something bad happened to you - seems like a new idea. And that you would buy insurance for just about everything in your life - to insure your family against someone dying, ...
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