"For Instruction shall come forth from Zion, The word of the L-rd from Jerusalem." -- Isaiah 2:3

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Are you more of an "I'll dive right in and figure it out" person, or a "Show Me How This Thing Works" person?  If the former, go right ahead and try the excerpts browers on the right side of this page and/or scroll through the excerpts that start below the following information -- although we still suggest reading the information first.  If you are the latter, click here for a video demonstrating the Excerpts Browser. Either way (or both), enjoy! 

This page is recommended for searches limited to specific Torah books, weekly portions (parshiot), chapters, verses, and/or sources (authors). For keyword and/or for exact phrase (including verse and source) searches of the entire excerpts database, we recommend using the Search Engine page.  For broadest results, use both pages and alternative search strategies. 

This page displays the full text of all or "sorted" (filtered) excerpts in the database.  Use the "Torah Verses" and/or "Excerpt Sources" browsers at the right to locate the excerpts associated with your desired Torah book, portion, chapter. verse, or author.  Or, simply scroll through the excerpts, using the "boxes" at the bottom of any page displaying excerpts to "jump" ahead or back. 

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DEUTERONOMY — 21:23 affront

Torah Book & Portion, Book of Deuteronomy, Ki Teitzei (Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19), Source Book Keys, DORFF-RUTTENBERGWAR
Page(s): 117-8
DEUT1071 Kevod ha-Beriyot: Human Dignity in Halakhah. The most fundamental assumption of Jewish ethics is that there is something intrinsically and ineradicably sacred about the human person, the human body and spirit as such. … Human dignity is arguably the foundational and most aspirational ideal of Jewish law. The injunction to avoid humiliating or contemptuous behavior takes legal precedence over all other Rabbinic rulings. [See Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 19b; Shabbat 81a-b, 94b; Eruvin 41b; Megillah 3b; Bava Kamma 79b; Menahot 37b, 38a. The parallel text in the Jerusalem Talmud (JT) presents the opinion of R. Zeira that even Torah commandments are temporarily overridden when they conflict with human dignity (JT Kil. 9:1).] The Rabbis thus designate human dignity as the litmus test for their sacred law, a seeming recognition that were the law to participate in dishonoring the human person, it would betray its own raison d'etre. What are some of the practical implications of this lofty principle?... 1. We are not to debase the human body. For many authorities, the idea that the human body is the corporeal representation of divinity gives rise to legal prohibitions against tattooing and multiple piercings, not only outright abuse and degradation of the body. The law prohibits dishonoring even the dead body of a criminal convicted of a capital crime. (Deuteronomy 21:23, Rashi ad. loc.). (By Melissa Weintraub)

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DEUTERONOMY — 24:5 rejoice

Torah Book & Portion, Book of Deuteronomy, Ki Teitzei (Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19), Source Book Keys, DORFF-RUTTENBERGWAR
Page(s): 135
DEUT1336 To rejoice one’s wife is regarded as a full-time occupation, especially during the first year of marriage, which often either makes or breaks the marriage. This duty is considered as a national and not just a personal obligation. By consolidating your marriage, this law teaches, you perform a greater service to your nation, to the survival of your people, by having a stable home than by joining the army and defending the people in military battle. The ultimate security of our people lies in our homes. Had we relied merely on military strength and victories, we would have been extinct long ago. Hence, in the choice to be made here between home and army, priority was to be given to the home. By staying home for the first year “to rejoice your wife” you render a more essential service to the nation than by joining its defenders in the trenches. In the moral scale of values, then, even in terms of Jewish security, happy homes come before powerful armies. Jewish homes are our principal fortifications, our first line of national defence[sic]. (By Immanuel Jakobovits)

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