Tanach

Beyond the sanctity of the pious and righteous ones is that of Clal Yisrael.

On the one hand, logic says that the true commentaries of the Tanach have already been revealed & taught for 3,300 years, and it even seems brazen to suggest that we can come up with new & true commentaries that Rashi & the sages didn't know or think of! On the other hand, it would be intellectually dishonest and disrespectful to the truth of Torah, if we were to ignore and not utilize the new vantage points which God has granted us through modern science, archeology, computers, Bible criticism & the return to the Land and State of Israel. The class gives many concise & practical examples and suggestions how to do so, and see the "Living Eternal Torah" as dynamic, exciting, personal, modern and as relevant as always.

Once, there was a man who passed away and left just one item to his favorite granddaughter. It was a photograph, clearly a very old photograph, of a young boy standing in a field. The girl was puzzled, "who is this boy, and why is this my inheritance?"

This week, the special haftara is from the beginning of the Book of Yirmiyahu. In order to understand the sefer better, one should realize that which we suggested in the past – that the sefer was written twice, as we shall explain. Yirmiyahu was written in two periods of time, one after the other, following a traumatic event.