HARdball Questions?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

May 23-24, 2025 • 27 Iyar 5785 • BeHar (Lev 25-end).

If you read this "Table Talk" blog regularly, you know that sometimes I pitch softballs and sometimes hardballs.

The weekly aim is provocative open-ended questions that hopefully anyone can have an opinion about, fostering dinner table conversation.

By “hardball,” I mean questions that have a higher chance of pushing emotional buttons.

Today, this week’s current events have prompted such questions. 

I’m referring to this DC tragedy, the wanton snuffing out of life of these two young Israelis.

Some have labeled the murder anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism means of course, Jew-hatred.

First question for your table: But were they targeted for being Jewish or for being Israeli? And does it make a difference?

How about this…

It turns out that Yaron Lischinsky has a Jewish father and Christian mother who raised him Christian and he was a member of the FFOZ Bram Center for Messianic Jewish Learning in Jerusalem. Therefore, according to most definitions of "Jewish" (other than Jews for Jesus), he wasn’t an MOT.

Therefore (second question for your table): Does that fact change your assessment of whether or not the murder was anti-Semitic?

Third question – and this is the hardest one: Was this tragedy a wake-up call that it's time that we start to consider Messianic Jews to be part of the Jewish People? What do you think? And if not, was it a wake-up call in any way?

Another angle on the same topic: 

This week I had a conversation with someone who considers himself Jewish and whom others consider Jewish who calls himself an atheist. When I asked him to clarify if he meant atheist as opposed to agnostic, his response wasn’t crystal-clear, so it is possible that he was technically agnostic. But either way, he calls himself atheist and celebrates a few Jewish traditions like Pesach because he enjoys them. 

Now, is such a person any less Jewish than a Jew for Jesus who keeps all of the holidays, eats kosher etc.? What do you think?


Shabbat Shalom


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Are You Heart of Hearing?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

May 16-17, 2025 • 20 Iyar 5785 • Emor (Lev 21-24).

Does this every happen to you — the same subject comes up repeatedly in one week from unrelated sources?

Like a recurring dream, but in real life?

Is it a sign that I should be focusing there?

This week my recurring-dream subject was hearing.

As in the physiological process of converting sound waves into information via the two marvelous instruments on the sides of our heads.

It came up in several unrelated conversations.

One was an email from a friend who wrote,

I believe blasting music at a wedding is anti-Torah, and unacceptable. King David showed us that dancing at a simchah should indeed be with all our hearts. But David did not give into the music (which could not have been very loud at all compared to today’s amplification) – he celebrated before Hashem and for His glory.

That's an interesting angle. I'm personally more concerned about the hearing damage caused by loud music which is real and permanent.

Another hearing-related conversation this week - Someone told me that a certain teacher used our "Ear" unit from our Ma Rabu!/Amazing Nature Curriculum, and that (predictably) her students were enthralled. (Here's the general-studies version.)

Today is Lag B'Omer, a holiday closely associated with music. It's also strongly associated with Torah and the most foundational foundation of Torah, Love Your Neighbor.

Question for your table: What's the connection between music and Love Your Neighbor?

Maybe you'll get some interesting answers from the table. Here's mine:

Great music in ensemble can only happen when the musicians are listening to each other. It doesn't matter how great the music is on paper - it could be the most exhilarating Beethoven symphony, but if the musicians are not listening to each other, it's going to sound terrible. 

That's exactly how Love Your Neighbor works. I can't treat you properly if I am not paying attention to you. I need to listen to you and really hear you. To listen with my heart and not only my head.


Happy Lag B'Omer and

Shabbat Shalom


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What's Great Spiritual Leadership?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

May 9-10, 2025 • 13 Iyar 5785 • AM-Kedoshim (Lev 16-20).

Now we're talking! An American Pope. 

But do we really care? 

First of all, you can ask this at your table - Does anyone know what the word "Pope" means?

It means "father" - from Greek pappas - and the full appellation is "Holy Father."

What makes him holy? Among other things, celibacy.

In their religion, the body and the physical world are ultimately unholy and the source of sin, and therefore the holiest people practice celibacy (which regardless of the sociological and historical basis, is the lived reality and projected value of their holiest people), and they teach that the ultimate goal of life is to escape this world of sin and go to Heaven.

Note our diametrical disagreement with them! Judaism teaches that the world is not inherently sinful, that it has the potential to be elevated, and indeed it is our job to elevate the physical to its spiritual potential - we are the bridge between Heaven and Earth.

Now, since we have all this chatter about American-bred spiritual leadership, what's a Jewish example?

While one could find many historically great examples, one of the all-time most famous and influential American-born rabbis was Rav Avigdor Miller (1908-2001) ztzl. His pre-Holocaust European yeshiva studies made him a great Torah expert, and his upbringing enabled him to fully relate to the American Jewish experience, and making him particularly quotable. Here are a couple of my favorites:

If people would know how to live properly - and by properly I mean happily - they would live with moderation. They would eat what they have to eat, and they would drink what they have to drink, and they would enjoy it so much that their lives would be overflowing with happiness and satisfaction. It would be a life of lo chosarta davar [not lacking]!

~

When you eat breakfast, learn to enjoy it to the hilt! Fully! Live deeply, richly, on your piece of bread and salt and water... When the tzaddik eats, he enjoys it. He really is happy with his food. That glass of water is more delicious to him than the most expensive champagne. Tzaddikim are not only people who look forward to the pleasure of Olam HaBa (the Next World) but have pleasure in this world, too.

These glimpses into the mind of a great Torah leader can lead us back to our main theme  — What's great spiritual leadership?

Shabbat Shalom


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Vegetative Electron Microscopy?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

May 2-3, 2025 • 5 Iyar 5785 • Tazria-Metzora (Lev 12-15).

Dovetailing on last week's theme of AI-generated art, try reading the above title to your table and ask, Can anyone can guess what it means???

If anyone guesses that it is meaningless, they are 100 percent right.

So how do you explain that it appears in published scientific papers?

The answer is long and convoluted. In short, apparently there was an error in an automatic scan of an old article where the word "vegetative" and the phrase "electron microscopy" appeared in adjacent columns of text.

Once that error was out there, it became replicated when non-Anglophones used AI to generate translations (or possibly to generate fraudulent papers). 

The details of this story were explained recently by Aaron Snoswell et al. in The Conversation, as an example of a real phenomenon:

Like biological fossils trapped in rock, these digital artefacts may become permanent fixtures in our information ecosystem.

We Jews have a great sensitivity to the subject of transmission accuracy. Our entire body of wisdom and culture known as Judaism relies on accurate transmission and our scholars are always on the lookout for errors. Even when reading the Torah ritually in shul, if the Torah scroll contains even one error, it must be put aside until fixed, and if the reader makes even a tiny error, anyone paying attention shouts out the correction.

Question for your table - which system of knowledge transmission is in the long-run going to prove more accurate - the traditional Jewish one, or the new AI one?


Shabbat Shalom

Good, Bad, Or Ugly?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 25-26, 2025 • 28 Nissan 5785 • Shemini (Lev 9-11).
In memory of my maternal uncle Mike Goodman (Michael ben Chaim) who passed away last week and whose Shiva is being observed this week.

In honor of Uncle Mike (see note above), this week's questions are about art.

Mike was a very special kind of artist, what we call an artisan. His chosen art form was rare MGs and occasionally other sports cars. He was one of those guys who could dismantle a car and rebuild it like new. What a career for a guy born and bred in LA. 

While he loved his work, he also loved people, and would do anything for anyone. He truly made the world a better place.

May his memory be for a blessing.

Speaking of artistry, try asking at the Shabbat table: how did you like last week's AI rendition of Abraham Lincoln as a Biblical shepherd?

Good, bad, or ugly?

Assuming the former, here's the 2nd question for the table: Who gets artistic credit?

On one hand, I indeed conceived the project, instructed the AI, and guided it to completion.

On the other hand, I certainly did not create the image.

Where is the "soul" of art — in the idea, or the execution, or both?

How about this week's self-portrait in bronze? Scale of 1 to 10?

It would take me many, many years of study to create such art from my own hands.

I imagine that people have been asking these questions since the invention of recorded music. 

Now, not everyone cares about visual arts or even musical arts. But I would like to suggest that everyone has an artist within.

How so?

This is a very Jewish take: our lives have the potential to be a work of art. But no AI can ever create my life for me - I have to be the artist. 

And... if you'll allow me to use a music analogy: we are all like musicians in a giant orchestra, so while we can each make beautiful solo music, there's nothing like playing together in harmony.

That, in a nutshell, is the point of Judaism — it's a musical score! All those rules? They're like all the notes, the key signatures and time signatures, the dynamics.... there are rules of intonation and of rhythm.... and when we are all playing the same score, we create a great symphony.

Perhaps AI can create great art, but not the greatest art? What would Uncle Mike say?


Shabbat Shalom


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Who's Happier - Avraham or Abraham?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 18-19, 2025 • 21 Nissan 5785 • Pesach (Ex 13:17-15:26).

Try this opener at your table: When's the last time you thought about John F. Kennedy? 

No, flying into JFK Airport doesn't count.

(I wonder: does getting an airport named after you raise or lower your standing in History?)

53 years ago, on April 29, 1962, President Kennedy hosted fifty Nobel laureates and dozens of other intellectuals for dinner. He famously quipped, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

Since Jefferson, the US has been lead by several great intellectuals, not the least of whom was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was remarkable in that he was mostly self-taught and had such a thirst for learning that he was rarely seen without a book. One of the keys to his learning was "by never being ashamed to confess his ignorance of what in fact he did not know, by always asking questions where he could probably elicit information, and by studying all his life. I have seen him repeatedly around upon the circuit with school books" (Leonard Swett, a lawyer who worked with Lincoln).

We are fortunate to live in a world that honors learning and people like this on pedestals.

But there are two questions we should ask about these role models.

First, these people all have natural gifts. Sure, one can (and should) be a lifelong learner like Lincoln. But not everyone is cut out to be constantly studying, are they?

Second – and more important – does knowledge lead to happiness?

Perhaps it does for some. 

But achieving breakthroughs in knowledge, even on a personal level, can take months or years of work, and it's hard work. Jefferson himself quipped, "Most people will go to any amount of trouble to avoid the effort of thinking."

For those who don't feel cut out for such intellectual life, you may be interested in the 2025 "World Happiness Report" from the Oxford University's Wellbeing Research Centre. Based on data from 140 countries, they have concluded that one way to achieve   And turns out that one way to become instantly happier is sharing a meal. 

And they found that the health impact of the opposite – loneliness and isolation – is "roughly equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day."

It turns out that our Patriarch Avraham was both an intellectual and a great gatherer of people to eat together. But we remember him primarily for the latter quality. His intellect was a gift, his learning was certainly a pursuit, but his loving kindness via food was his art.  

Abraham Lincoln's art was politics, and he saved his country. Not bad.

Avraham Avinu's art was people, and he saved the world.

May we all learn to cultivate the great arts of happiness.

Happy Pesach and 

Shabbat Shalom

This message also appears on my Times of Israel blog.

You Better Think (Think) Think ...

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 11-12, 2025 • 14 Nissan 5785 • Tzav (Lev. 6-8).
 

 

This morning someone in a Jewish chat group voiced the following sentiment:

I don't celebrate Passover. Oh, freedom, when there are prisoners. There is no spirit. There is no strength in the body to prepare and clean the house. It is impossible to watch the news without dizziness. Enemies from outside, conflicts from within, quarrels of different groups within the country. It is like living in a boiling kettle. 

This person is making a strong point: how can we sit down at a Seder tomorrow night and celebrate freedom when so many people - including our brothers and sisters in Gaza?

"What kind of freedom is it when 59 people are still in Hamas hell?"
- Liri Albag, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza for 15 months

This is a powerful question and anyone with a heart should be asking it.

Someone else said to me yesterday, "People today who have always lived in freedom cannot appreciate freedom the way that someone can who literally escaped ______ [name an oppressive country] with their lives."

I hear the point. Just this week, a member of my Zoom Talmud group was recounting his escape as a child from Germany to Shanghai and what it felt like on that final leg to America. I heard his story, and I've read many stories, but I haven't lived them.

But these questions from current events and personal experience underscores a more fundamental question that I have about the Pesach Seder.

No matter which Haggadah you use – Maxwell House traditional, modern, rationalized, simplified, expanded, Amazing – I'm pretty sure that you'll be reading the words, In each and every generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he personally left Egypt.

Everyone always likes to ask, "What's your favorite part of Pesach?" 

Nothing wrong with that question, it's a fine conversation-starter.

But try also asking this one: "What's the hardest part of Pesach for you?"

We expect the middle of the bell curve to answer "not eating chametz for a week" or "eating matzah for a week."

But my personal answer is, Trying to fulfill "In each and every generation..."

How are you supposed to do that?

And in our particular generation, living through such difficult times for Jews presently, all the more so - how can you feel liberated today? 

I believe this is an excellent question for your Shabbat table and encourage you to think about it and discuss it.

It turns out that it's not actually a new question. Remember that other "every generation" line in the Haggadah? "In every generation they try to destroy us..."

Some or most of our deep-thinking commentators lived through times as bad or far worse than today. Not one of them ever suggested cancelling our holiday of Freedom in light of current events.

But some have suggested interpreting Passover as a message and meditation deeper than mere History.

Each element of the Seder - chametz, matzah, maror, 4 cups of wine, etc. - is symbolic of your and my soul-journey in this world and "enslavement" to our bodily needs and desires. 

The Chinuch (13th Century) writes (based on the Talmud), "The yeast in the flour raises itself up and inflates itself [which represents arrogance]. Therefore, we distance ourselves from it, as reflected in the verse, “Every arrogant heart is an abomination to God” (Proverbs 16:5).

Rav E. E. Dessler (20th C) writes, "Everything has an inner aspect to it ... The exile in Egypt appears to a normal person as if it was a physical slavery. But a spiritually-oriented person sees that it was a slavery of the soul, and that this was the real cause for physical slavery. In short, we were slaves to the yetzer hara (bad inclination).... The Torah calls Egypt Mitzrayim, from the root meitzar, which means “constriction” and “distress.” It also signifies “boundary.”

The rushing out of Egypt represents the reality that negative habits like laziness and arrogance are defeated when one acts with zeal, with alacrity, with focus and determination. When the alarm goes off, an inner voice says, "Hey, how about 5 more minutes? Let's hit the snooze button!" Another voice says, "No way, we have to get up and change the world!" The first voice tries again, "What's the rush? We can change the world in five minutes!" Back and forth you go until it's half an hour later. 

What's the solution? As soon as the alarm rings, leap out of bed! That's the moral of rushing out of Egypt and not having time for the dough to rise.

 

Yeast in the dough represents the yetzer hara in our hearts makes us leavened. - Rashi

That's something to mediate on while eating your matzah.

May you and yours, and I and mine, and all the Jewish People, and all good people, be personally liberated (physically, spiritually and any other way).


Shabbat Shalom and

Happy Pesach

PS - Still time to download the 2025 JSLI Pesach Kit...


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Ready for Matzah-Fest?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 4-5, 2025 • 7 Nissan 5785 • Vayikra (Lev. 1-5).
 

The 2025 JSLI Pesach Kit is now available for download!

 

THE 2025 KIT INCLUDES:

Preparing for the Seder / Seder Checklist / Art of Amazement Haggadah / Bingo Cards / Charades / Seder Scramble / Coloring pages / Seder Trivia Questions

…and more !!!

What's new this year? Only one way to find out...

jsli.org/passover-kit/

Wishing you HHH — a Holy & Happy Holiday.
 

The JSLI Kit (linked above) is designed for someone running the Seder. For everyone else, I would recommend any or all of these books:

Out Of Egypt
Dual Discovery
Katz Haggadah
The Exodus You Almost Passed Over
What Do You See on Pesach? (board book)


Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

 – What do you normally do to prepare for Pesach?
 – What do you sometimes wish you did to prepare but don't normally do?


Shabbat Shalom


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What's Your Name???

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Mar 28-29, 2025 • 29 Adar 5785 • Pekudei (Ex 38-40).

Our "Body & Soul: Pesach" PDF is now available at TorahHealth.org.  
Our "2025 Pesach Kit" download is now available.  

Last week, several people replied that they enjoyed the challenge of the metal mettle message, and thankfully nobody called me out on the typo.

(Not a significant typo as long as anyone inspired to go start alloying brass will do a bit more research beyond my email.)

By the way, a further hint to the question for the table about "pure gold" — the process of purifying a metal is symbolic of refining oneself. 

What I mean is: did you ever go to a high school or college reunion and notice that some people are exactly the same as they were so many years ago while others seem like completely different people?

The entire point of life - per Jewish wisdom - is to become a better person, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. If you're the same person you were a year ago, something's wrong. 

Now, I called today's missive, "What's your name?" because a Jewish name encodes the person's personal mission. If you know your name, that means that you know your mission. If you are growing, and feel like you are headed somewhere, you may know your mission even though you don't know your name. But someone who is not growing very possibly doesn't know his name.

So, Kimosabee: What's your name? What's your mission?


Shabbat Shalom


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Can You Win the Metal-Mettle Meddle Medal?

 

 

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Mar 21-22, 2025 • 22 Adar 5785 • Vayakeil (Ex 35-38).

Announcement: You can now get our free "Body & Soul: Pesach" PDF at TorahHealth.org.  

With metals like gold and copper back in the news (and silver too), let's take a cue from the news and test everyone's metal-mettle.... 10 Questions:

1 - How many Biblical metals can you name? [gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin]
2 - Which were the most precious metals back then? [gold and silver, same as today]
3 - What is bronze? [mostly copper with 10% or so tin mixed in to make it stronger]
4 - What is brass? [also a copper alloy, but with zinc instead of tin and up to ⅓ tin]
5 - What are pennies made of and why do some people think they should be discontinued? [mostly zinc with a thin copper veneer; because it costs about 5¢ to make each penny]
6 - How can you easily remove the tarnish from copper? [soak in vinegar with baking soda]
7 - How can you easily remove the tarnish from silver? [use the baking soda-aluminum foil trick]
8 - How is gold different? [it cannot tarnish (if pure)]
9 - Which metal can make it rain? [Silver Iodide is dropped onto clouds as a process called “seeding.” It brings rain to dry regions in times of drought]
10 - Just how ductile are these metals? [A single ounce of silver can be drawn into a wire 8,000' long; A single ounce of gold can be stretched over 50 miles!]

These three Torah metals, says Rav Hirsch, represent three kinds of people: Copper, the most common and the easiest to tarnish, is the roughest type of person. Silver, which shines much brighter than copper when polished, is the average person. Gold, which cannot tarnish, is the righteous person.

So here's a question for your table - when building the Tabernacle (Temple) with these three metals, gold is repeatedly called "pure gold." Silver is never called "pure silver" nor is copper ever called "pure copper" - yet presumably each material was used in its pure form. Why is gold alone referred to again and again (24x) as "pure"? 


Shabbat Shalom


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Does the World Appear uʍop-ǝpᴉsdn?

 

 

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Mar 14-15, 2025 • 14-15 Adar 5785 • Ki Seitzei (Ex 30-34).

Happy Purim!

By the time you are reading this, Purim is ending in Israel (except in Jerusalem and a couple other cities where they really like to live it up!) and in full-swing west of there.  

Here's a "simple" question for your Purim, Shabbat, or random table:

If it's true that there is a God running the world, why would said God make people like Haman, Hitler, Sinwar, Nasrallah, and Khomeini? Is it possible that they are truly part of God's plan, or is it more likely that they emerged in history despite God's plan? Or: does the existence and "success" of such people prove that there is no God running the world? What do you think?

Challenge: give everyone at the table 1 glass of wine more than they ordinarily would drink, and then ask the question again....


Happy ɯᴉɹnԀ and Shabbat Shalom!

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Do Some People Have All the Luck?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Mar 7-8, 2025 • 7 Adar 5785 • Titzaveh (Ex 27-30).
Happy birthday shout-out to our dear daughter Emuna. 
Countdown to ɯᴉɹnԀ !!!

Do Some People Have All the Luck?

Apologeez-louise to anyone offended by last week's image.

Either you love the man, and don't like to see him made fun of, or you hate the man and just don't like to see him.

(Either way, I hope that the message got you to smile!)

I often say sincerely that I have the best job in the world.

​I get to speak (sometimes "speak", i.e., in writing) every day with highly intelligent people about things that I think are interesting and important (namely Jewish wisdom). I feel lucky.

On that note, I would like to raise an old topic that never fails to amaze me.

Try asking at your table: Did you ever fantasize about winning a big jackpot? What would do with that windfall?

I'm guessing that most people have a private list of wants that they imagine filling.

Then ask: Did you ever hear stories about someone who won the big jackpot and later regretted it?

It's true, it has happened many times. Millions of people play various gambling games every day, very much hoping to win. We play because we imagine ourselves with all that dough. We picture the luxury car that we'll be able to afford, or the [fill in the blank]. And hearing about someone else winning only fuels the fire of that imagination: somebody (else) got lucky!

But the truth is that some jackpot winners discover that the reality of winning is the exact opposite of what they'd imagined it to be.

Before they won a $2.76 million lottery jackpot in 2005, Lara and Roger Griffiths, of England, reportedly never argued.

Then they won and bought a million-dollar barn-converted house and a Porsche, not to mention luxurious trips to Dubai, Monaco, and New York City.

Media stories say their fortune ended in 2010 when a freak fire gutted their house, which was underinsured, forcing them to shell out for repairs and seven months of temporary accommodations.

Shortly after, there were claims that Roger drove away in the Porsche after Lara confronted him over emails suggesting that he was interested in another woman. That ended their 14-year marriage

Here's another one:

William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, but he was $1 million in debt within a year.

"I wish it never happened," Post said. "It was totally a nightmare."

A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a third of his winnings, and his brother was arrested for allegedly hiring a hit man to kill him in the hopes he'd inherit a share of the winnings.

After sinking money into family businesses, Post sank into debt and spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector.

"I was much happier when I was broke," he said, The Washington Post reported.

Bud lived quietly on $450 a month and food stamps until his death in 2006.

There are many stories like this.

(Source of the above: Business Insider.)

I know what you're thinking — "I'm different! If I won the jackpot I wouldn't squander the money or let it ruin me!"

Perhaps you are different... but...

Final question for the table: How do you know? 


Shabbat Shalom

PS - Click the image for something that will truly transform your Purim....


Appreciated this Table Talk? Like it, tweet it, forward it....{VR_SOCIAL_SHARING} This message can be read on Times of Israel.

Truth or Adar?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Feb 28-Mar 1, 2025 • 1 Adar 5785 • Terumah (Ex 25-27).

The Talmud declares : "When Adar arrives, we increase our joy!"

Adar of course refers to the lunar month which begins tonight.

Woe to the teachers in Jewish schools. The merry mischief begins even today and ramps up a notch every day over the next two weeks.

It's like two weeks of old-style Halloween. Not "Trick or treat," just "Trick!"

I taught in a Jewish school like that once. My first year there I had to contend with random troops of truants bursting into my classroom, bellowing Purim songs and dancing around the room.

If it sounds cute to you, it is possibly cute the first time it occurs, but after the fourth or fifth or tenth time or actually even by the second time it is simply annoying.

And that's the lightest of examples!

(The next year I planned ahead and found an excuse to have a lock installed on the door.)

So this is actually a very profound question for your table – this very week like so many weeks we have all had such upsetting tragedies befall us - is it reasonable to expect or even talk about "When Adar arrives, we increase our joy!" ???? Does that tradition fall just a little bit flat this year?

Try asking this at your table.

A related question: Is the statement, "When Adar arrives, we increase our joy!" proscriptive or descriptive?

Maimonides (Rambam) seems to think that it's proscriptive, and his approach to "increasing joy" is instructive.

If you think about your typical "joyous moments", they're often moments of achieving something - whether it's accomplishing a task, solving a problem, winning an award, etc. There is indeed great joy in achievement.

But the Rambam says that the greatest way to increase joy is doing something for someone else.

(That's why a big part of Purim is giving money to the poor and food to everyone else.)

Not so easy you say? Easy I say. Just follow the ethic taught in our great book, Pirkei Avot:

    Greet every person with a smile.

Show them your beautiful smile. You don't think you have a beautiful smile? I beg to differ. I've literally never met someone who didn't have a beautiful smile. Any and every genuine smile is beautiful. When you smile at someone, you increase their joy. And your own.

A smile is the easiest, most affordable way of saying to another human being, "You matter."

Question for your table: Is that realistic - to greet every person with a smile?


Shabbat Shalom and 

Chodesh tov

Oy For An Aye?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Feb 21-22, 2025 • 25 Shevat 5785 • Mishpatim (Ex 21-24).

Get Off Your...

My father z"l would occasionally season a conversation with random Yiddish words.

I suppose he heard these as a child from his grandparents – Iddish-reddendik (Yiddish-speaking) immigrants from Galicia.

Sometimes Yiddish can say it better than English. That's why Americans know what chutzpah is and can recognize schmaltz when they hear it. And from my father I learned to call my in-laws (i.e., the parents of my child's spouse) my mechutanim. 

In order to encourage a child's movement on a lazy Sunday morning, he would say, "Get off your tuchus!"

The dictionary spells it tochus and I learned recently some consider it to be rather impolite.

Hmm... Tuchus literally means "bottom" and perhaps my West Coast upbringing is showing, but my father never uttered a profanity in his life as far as I know, so I refuse to allow his clean image be tarnished by such linguistic puritanism.

It comes from the Hebrew word tachat, which is used in the Torah in a very interesting way:

Ayin tachat ayin, shayn tachat shayn. 

Translation: "An eye tachat an eye, a tooth tachat a tooth."

Now, I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, doesn't it go, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?

That's certainly what Christian's translators say (or more vividly here).

Their imprecision is understandable. It helps underscore their message that Christianity must supplant Judaism because "Old Testament" law is unbearably harsh.

My friend Shaya Cohen points out that throughout the Torah, the term tachat always means an exchange for or comparison to something of lesser value. Whenever the Torah has something tachat something, the second item is beneath or below the first one.

In this case, exchange or compensation for the eye is money. Money is certainly of lesser value than the lost eye. Can any amount of money ever truly replace an eye – a device of incredible complexity and incalculable value? Compensating someone who lost an eye with money is the epitome of tachat.

Therefore the Torah's most famous declaration of justice – ayin tachat ayin – is not at all retributive, rather is compensatory. That's the literal meaning, without needing to resort to drash interpretation. 

Question for your table: If true compensation for such bodily harm is indeed impossible, why even bother assessing damages? Since the eye, or the tooth, or the life, cannot be restored, what's the point of this imperfect justice?

Shabbat Shalom

PS - With Purim fast approaching, you may want to click on the above image.

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A version of this post may be read on the Times of Israel.