EXOD985 When offering personal prayers to God, we should make our appeal dependent on the merit of others, not our own. For example, when Moses beseeched God not to destroy the Jews because of their sin with the Golden Calf, he said, "Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" [this verse]. Still, a later biblical text credits him, not the Patriarchs, as deserving the credit for God's decision to save the Jews: "He (God) would have destroyed them had not Moses, His chosen one, confronted Him in the breach to avert His destructive wrath" (Psalms 106:23, see Berachot 10b). When we offer personal prayers to God--something almost all religious people do at least occasionally--we should make a request, at least sometimes, in the name of the parent, grandparents, or someone else who loved us, and who was a very good person.

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EXOD991 On occasion, even highly immoral people try to rationalize errant behavior. … Aaron's explanation recalls the words of the American writer Sidney Harris: "We have not passed the subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice; that is, until we have stopped saying, 'It got lost,'" and say, 'I lost it.'" Indeed, if you reread Aaron's explanation of how the Golden Calf came into being, his words do, in fact, sound childlike.

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EXOD1036 The Torah notes that truth is one of God's thirteen attributes [this verse], while the Talmud teaches that "the seal of God is truth" Shabbat 55a; Sanhedrin 64a. Rabbi Louis Jacobs explains," in ancient times, a man would append his seal to a document as evidence of its authenticity [a king, for example, would apply his seal to an enactment of which she approved]." This is seal bore some distinguishing mark for identification purposes. Where truth is found, there is evidence of God's presence"; conversely, a lie indicates a lack of God's presence.

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EXOD1040 [Continued from [[EXOD32]] Exodus 2:6 pity TELVOL1 87] How, then, is one to explain the verse," [God] visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children's children" [this verse]? First, even if God does this, the Torah forbids human beings from acting similarly: "Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children to death for parents: a person shall be put to death only for his own crime" Deuteronomy 24:16. Further, the Talmud explains that visiting "the iniquity of parents upon children" refers only to children who followed their parents' bad example Sanhedrin 27b. Therefore, if a young person of bad ancestry shows evidence of being a good person, we should give him the benefit of the doubt; God will not punish him or hold his parents' sins against him, and neither should we.

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LEV54 If not demanding restitution makes it more likely that the perpetrator will repent, then it is a worthy act, but not obligatory, to do so. The Talmud offers a related instance in which a victim may not insist on strict justice. According to Jewish law, [this] verse in Leviticus mandating that a robber "shall restore what he took by robbery" obligates a thief to return, as it is, the object he stole. But what if, for example, the robber stole a beam, and then used it as part of a building? Is the thief required to tear down the building so that he can return it? The School of Shammai ruled that this is exactly what he should do: "he must demolish the whole [building] and restore the beam to its owner." The House of Hillel, however, whose judgment prevails, says that the victim can claim only the monetary value of the beam, so as not to place obstacles in the way of penitents (Gittin 55a). This ruling is consistent with Judaism's general commitment to fairness and a realistic assessment of human nature. As Rashi explains in his commentary on this passage, "For if you force him to destroy his dwelling and return the beam to its owner, he will avoid the act of repentance."

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LEV74 One of the Torah's 613 commandments is "You shall be holy" [this verse]. In Nachmanides' Torah commentary, he explains that, to achieve holiness, it is not enough to refrain from doing unholy and wrongful acts, although that indeed is a necessary first stage (we can't be holy while stealing, deceiving others, or engaging in a forbidden sexual relationship). But the second stage, to which all people should aspire, is "to sanctify yourself through that which is permitted to you" (Yevamot 20a). Thus, if we eat permitted food but "eat like a pig," we have not violated Judaism's dietary restrictions, but we have violated the command to "be holy." Similarly, if we refrain from speaking words that could console or inspire another, we have not done anything directly immoral, but we certainly have not obeyed the injunction to "be holy." To achieve holiness, we must strive to do what is permitted--whether it involves eating, speaking to others, or conducting our business--in a way that is holy. Therefore, in any given circumstance in which we are uncertain how to behave, we should ask ourselves, "What would the command to 'be holy' bid me to you do in this situation?"

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LEV76 Many people assume that the Bible wants children to fear their parents. But the verse that often is translated as commanding fear more accurately means, "Let each man be in awe of his mother and father" [this verse]. Awe is understood by Jewish law as mandating for example, that a child not sit in a chair that normally is reserved for a parent, but not that the child be afraid of the parent.

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LEV238 … both sibling and wifely rivalry permeated the relationship of two matriarchs, Leah and Rachel. The two women were married to Jacob. Rachel, who was having trouble conceiving, was jealous of her sister Leah, who already had four children (Genesis 30:1). ... Although later Torah law permitted polygamy, it forbade two sisters from marrying the same man, unless one of them had died [this verse].

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LEV253 … contemporary rabbinic scholars generally condemn efforts to explain people's illnesses and deaths from disease as punishment for their behavior. For example, Lord Jakobovits, the late British Chief Rabbi and medical ethicist, criticized religious people who chose to see AIDS as God's punishment of homosexuals (an activity banned by Torah law [this verse]: "We can no more divine why some people endure terrible ills without any appropriate cause than we can comprehend why others prosper though they clearly do not deserve their good fortune. Even less are we justified in being selective, subjecting some scourges to this moral analysis while exempting others-- AIDS, yes, but earthquakes, or flood or drought, no." (Cited in Freudenthal, AIDS in Jewish Thought and Law, 2).

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LEV353 Witnesses in court testify under oath and in God's name ("so help me God"), or affirm, with the understanding that they are doing so in God's Name, that they are telling the truth (Obviously, atheists do not swear or affirm in God's Name, but they are a very small percentage of the population.) Therefore, lies told in court constitute a Chillul Hashem ("profanation of God's Name), since they associate God with a lie: "And don't take an oath, then lie in My Name and profane the Name of your Lord" (this verse; the prohibition against bearing false testimony is also one of the Ten Commandments; Exodus 20:13). [(Because of the profanation of God's Name, the Bible regards perjury as among the worst of crimes and, in writing of the punishment inflicted on perjurers, appends, "And you shall wipe out the evil from your midst" (Deuteronomy 19:19)]. Furthermore, since justice is so important a commandment (the Torah ordains, "Justice, Justice you shall pursue"; Deuteronomy 16:20), thwarting justice undermines a society. It is bad enough that a society contains criminals and corrupt individuals. If, however, the justice system itself is corrupt, then there is no hope for the society to improve itself. Therefore, lying under oath undermines a society's hope of being, or becoming, just.

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