GivTorah

  Parshas Vayera was an emotional roller coaster of a Parshah. What began with the promise of a new child for Avraham and Sarah (1) ended with the near slaughter of that child on Har Moriah. (2) Along the way Sodom was destroyed, (3) Lot was drugged and raped by his two daughters, (4) Sarah was taken by Avimelekh, (5) and Sarah had Avraham expel Hagar and her young child from their home. (6) Parshas Vayera raises profound theological and religious questions. How is it that Avraham could advocate against the destruction of a city of rapists (7) but not for the life of his own innocent child? (8) How could Avraham so wantonly kick Hagar out of his house just a few chapters after hearing that his own descendants would become an enslaved and oppressed people in a foreign land? (9) How could a kind and loving God test someone by commanding them to kill their child, and how could Avraham have even thought for a minute that passing the test would involve actually going through with that?...

  In Parshas Lekh Lekha we're introduced to Avraham - one of the most important and complex Biblical personalities. Constantly tested by God, (1) a staunch advocate of righteousness and fair judgment, (2) and a deeply committed exemplar of the values of charity and hospitality, (3) Avraham is a deeply nuanced and inspiring Torah figure.  In God's first communication with Avraham, God commanded him to "go forth from your native land and from your father's house to the land that I will show you." (4) At 75 years old (5) Avraham packed up and moved his entire family and started traveling, eventually arriving in the land of Canaan.  Before anything else, that versatility and ability to redefine and rebrand oneself at such a mature age is unbelievable. Additionally, there is in this first divine command an echo of the current coronavirus situation: we don't know if and when we will find a vaccine, we don't know if and when it will be effective, and we don't...

In Parshas Noach we find the first divine allowance in the Torah for animal consumption: "Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these." (1) The very next verse, however, limits this permission: "You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it." Although a more literal translation would probably forbid blood consumption, the Gemara (2) sees in this Pasuk a prohibition against eating the limbs of living animals.  The clear implication of this Mitzvah (3) is that there's some level of Torah obligation on human beings to engage compassionately with all living creatures. What exactly is that level? Where does the balance lie? What is its floor and what is its ceiling? Alas, these questions are a bit more complicated. The Torah clearly indicates that, in the world's natural hierarchy, human beings are more important than animals. Immediately before allowing Noach to eat meat, God tells him that "...

  In the second chapter of Derekh haShem, Ramchal defines God as a Being Who, by God's very nature, is a Giver of good to others. Indeed, the Torah opens with an account of God's creative act - the formation of our world and all the beauty and diversity that God filled it with.  As creation unfolds the Torah informs us that God blessed all humans, telling them that they should "be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth." (1) The Talmud (2) understood this not merely as a blessing but as a proactive obligation that one ought to bring children into the world.  Just about every major compiler of Mitzvos included "Pru u'Rvu" as a Mitzvah somewhere in their list. (3) The Sefer haChinukh writes that "it is a great Mitzvah through which all other Mitzvos are observed because the Torah was given to people, not angels." (4) There seems to be an...