One of the overarching goals of the Torah is to refine people’s moral character. Many laws and narratives overtly focus on morality, and many others inveigh against the immorality and amorality of paganism. The biblical prophets place consistency between observance of God’s ritual and moral laws at the very heart of their message.
Sunday, February 10 | 10:00am - 12:30pm
at Lincoln Square Synagogue
The challenge of how to respond to the exposure of our children to morally questionable behavior on the part of some religious and political leaders presents an opportunity to clarify our thinking about our responsibility to foster the moral education of our children through direct discussion as well as awareness of some of the more subtle ways that children internalize our values.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch is a classic example of the knowledge-lishmah school of thought. Not only does he extol the spiritual value of secular studies, he explicitly derides those who see knowledge as a tool to advance one's career.
This coming Sunday, February 10, please join us for a fabulous symposium on how to promote greater ethical behavior through Torah education. At Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan (68th and Amsterdam Avenue), from 10:00am-12:30pm. For details click here
https://www.jewishideas.org/torah-education-and-morality-are-we-succeeding
Our fall semester highlighted a communal symposium on October 21 on Conversion to Judaism, and you can watch the presentations at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG17aaahdPQ. As of this writing, we have had nearly 1000 views! Please watch the video and send the link to your friends so that we can reach an ever-growing audience. Please join us at our upcoming classes and programs.
If we wish to understand the development of middot and derekh eretz, we must understand that there is no one method, factor, or place (such as school, home, synagogue and so forth) that, can by itself, assure the development of middot and derekh eretz in our children. The job is bigger than that. We must become aware of all relevant factors and how they interact—and keep them in mind when we educate our children.
Shemot 6:26. That is Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, "Take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt with their legions."
Shemot 6:27. They are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to let the children of Israel out of Egypt; they are Moses and Aaron.
In Parashat Va’eira, Hashem refers to Moshe and Aharon in two consecutive verses. In verse 26, He puts Aharon's name first and in verse 27, Moshe’s . Why is that?
How is wonder supposed to help us overcome the decisive religious and theological questions that we often grapple with? For Rabbi A. J. Heschel, the sense of wonder is so overwhelming that it conquers our doubts and questions about evil and meaning in a world that often seems absurd. Significantly, he is not on a quest to ultimate solutions, but rather “to find ourselves as part of a context of meaning.”
How can an Orthodox Jew in today's world maintain faith in Torah in the face of the apparent challenges of natural science to that faith? Dr. Menachem Kellner examines Maimonides' approach to the issue and then proposes his own approach, one which relies upon reverting to what he understands as classic Jewish definitions of faith.
