Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky is the Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies and Director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at Jewish Theological Seminary
Burton L. Visotzky
By Burton L. Visotzky
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Community Jews Have A Biblical And Rabbinic Obligation To Oppose Trump’s Muslim Ban
On Tuesday, October 17, a U.S. district court issued a temporary stay on the administration’s Muslim Ban 3.0. Those seeking entrance to the U.S. are for the moment reprieved. Yet the government will continue to challenge the courts and ban Muslims from immigrating. I personally believe we must vigilantly oppose the government’s efforts. My grandfather…
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Culture Bringing A Talmudic Sage Back To Life
RABBI AKIVA: SAGE OF THE TALMUD By Barry W. Holtz Yale University Press, 248 pages, $25 When I was a rabbinical student, my teacher, Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, told me that when he was a college student he interviewed with the legendary Solomon Schechter to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary for rabbinical school. Schechter asked…
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News A Sense of Direction
The book of Exodus comes to a close this week with laws relating to gift-giving for the Tabernacle and the details of its construction. In what appears to be a fund-raiser’s fantasy, Moses relates God’s command that the Israelites “give their heart’s desire” (Exodus 35:5), and they give so much he has to ask them…
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News In the Time of the Plagues
A couple of years ago, my family and I vacationed in Egypt. In Cairo, we stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Zamalek, a former palace situated on an island in the Nile. At night, kept awake by the constant din of automobile traffic, we could gaze at the reflection of the lights on that mighty…
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Culture Korah; or, the Possibility of Change
This week’s Torah portion, Korah, tells a spectacular story of rebellion and punishment. Korah challenges Moses and Aaron’s rule with a deceptively simple argument: “All of the community is holy.… What makes you so special that you raise yourselves up?” (Numbers 16:3) Coming as it does from his very own tribe, Moses falls into despair….
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News Ignoring the Icky Stuff
This time of year rabbis often despair over the weekly Torah reading. Our portion covers much of what Bible scholars technically refer to as “the icky stuff.” We read of skin eruptions, blemishes, leprosy of houses, genital flows and fluxes. And yet there is much “Torah” in this Torah portion. First, one could follow the…
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News Gold and Silver and Wisdom
In the book of Job, the title character asks, “Where can wisdom be found? Where is the source of understanding?” (Job 28:12). Not bad questions, all in all. Rabbi Tanhum ben Hanilai suggested that these questions refer to King Solomon, who spent so much of his life seeking wisdom. God rewards Solomon, explaining, “Since you…
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News Erasing the Shadow of Fear
My honored senior colleague, Rabbi Myer Kripke of Omaha, Neb., writes to me regarding Numbers 27:1, where the daughters of Tzelophechad (Zelophehad) are mentioned. He wonders whether there is any midrash on the name Tzelophechad, which he divides into two parts, as though it were shorthand combining two words into one. This is an old…
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