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.

Appreciated this Table Talk? Like it, tweet it, forward it...

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

Counting On You?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Feb 14-15, 2025 • 17 Shevat 5785 • Yisro (Ex 18-21).

Announcement - We just released a new and improved edition of Restoring the Kuzari.

Did you ever see a child counting on her fingers to solve a math problem and think, "She's got to learn how to do that without her fingers!"

Well, it has been known for almost a decade that counting on your fingers is actually good for your brain.

Brain scans have shown how a person who learned to add and subtract with their fingers has more brain activity in the "sensory" areas of the brain even later in life when they are no longer using their fingers. This connection may help explain why musical skill and especially piano often goes hand-in-hand with numeracy. 

(It also underscores the power of using physical "manipulatives" in education. Visual is great - hands-on is even better. I don't know how to get this message across to our school leaders, but I'll keep shouting it until somebody listens.)

Now, try this at your table: ask everyone to hold up their hands and look at their fingers. Then ask: "What Jewish connection do they invoke?"

I wonder how many Jewish v. non-Jewish people would immediately say, "The 10 Commandments!"

It never ceases to amaze me how many Jews are tuned out of the 10 Commandments and how many non-Jews care about them.

So then try this one at your table: "Name the 10 Commandments, in order."

(You may have to add, "OK, how about out of order?")

Let's appreciate this a little deeper.

For one time in your life, put yourself in a Christian's shoes.

You believe that the Torah has become the "Old Testament" and that the New Testament reigns supreme.

You don't practice circumcision (although you're a bit fuzzy on the why...).

You "affirm the moral authority of the 10 Commandments" but believe that only 9 are presently binding. Why only 9? Again, a bit fuzzy...

(The one that they believe is no longer binding or at least not on Gentiles is the mitzvah of stoping your normal routine on the Seventh Day and to sanctify it.)

Question for your table – Is it a net positive for the Jews and/or the world that the Evangelicals like to post the Top 10 in public spaces? (Never mind that we can't seem to agree on what they are.)

Ironically, Jews agree that the Torah (including the 10) does not pertain to Gentiles and yet we have no quarrel with someone who wants to follow them ... with one exception - the Sabbath.   

So it's a double-irony.

Here's one more question that most Jews and Gentiles equally cannot answer - What does the Torah call the 10 Commandments? After all, aren't there 613 commandments?

The answer: The 10 Declarations.

Question: What's the significance of that nuance? 


Shabbat Shalom

PS - The pic above links to a great book for helping children develop their numeracy.

Appreciated this Table Talk? Like it, tweet it, forward it....

Are You a Whitey Or a Pinky?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Feb7-8, 2025 • 10 Shevat 5785 • Bishalach (Ex 13-17).

Here's a follow-up to last week's follow up to the Moral Compass question from two weeks ago...

This week's title refers to salt. Are you a plain Norton Table Salt kind of person, or are you a fancy pink Himalayan salt kind of person?

I can tell you why I personally jumped on the pink bandwagon for awhile. 

- It's cool.
- It's reasonably priced on Amazon.
- It doesn't come from the polluted ocean.

The ocean has microplastics, heavy metals and who knows what.

I just discovered that our favorite Nori seaweed carries the California Prop 65 warning - it's likely tainted with lead or mercury.

The scariest thing about microplastics is that nobody has any idea if and how they may harm us - and now they're being found in all parts of the human body, including the brain.

We at least have a clue about the source of oceanic microplastic - much comes from the tire wear of 1,500,000,000 cars on the world's roads (the tires on your car are more than ¼ plastic).

But what about the microplastics they're now finding high in the Himalayas? And one study found that the Himalayan pinks rank worst among salts for microplastic contamination.

And just as bad - some Himalayan pink salts have lead and arsenic above the Prop 65 levels. Here's a full article by consumer activist Leah Segedie who tested them. She states: "The good news is no salt product came back with the equivalent levels that would require a Prop. 65 warning based on serving size per day."

And there's an additional issue: iodine - Himalayan salt, Trader Joe's boutique seasonings, salt in processed foods - none of those are iodized, and iodine deficiency is a real concern.

So what salt(s) to choose?

I'm happy to report that good ol' fashioned Morton iodized table salt has tested very favorably in terms of heavy metals. But no info on the microplastics. And the common critique of Morton salt is that:

Typical table salts such as Morton’s has been heavily processed, bleached and heated. This high heat changes the chemical structure of sodium chloride, transforming it into a state that is no longer natural and different from what our bodies are designed to digest and use. An additive called calcium silicate is then added to prevent clumping.

According to the principle "the less processed, the better," here are interesting options that I'm currently looking at.... 

Seasonello - from Sardinia (one of the Blue Zones) - iodized
Redmond Real Salt - from a Utah salt mine - not iodized

(BTW, if you use non-iodized salt, you can get your daily RDA from a couple glasses of milk, 12 or so ounces of Greek yogurt, or six eggs. Or a sheet of seaweed, if you can find any without the Prop 65 warning!)

Question for your table - Does this entire discussion really matter, or is it mere alarmism? 


Shabbat Shalom

and Happy Tubishvat (next week)


Appreciated this Table Talk? Like it, tweet it, forward it....