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

Jerusalem

Torah Verses

Excerpt Sources

Complete List of Source Books

Navigate the Excerpts Browser

Before accessing the excerpts, please review a word about copyright.

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. 

Also note that immediately below the chapter, verse, and keyword of each excerpt is a highlighted line comprised of multiple links.  Clicking on any of the links will limit (filter) the excerpts display to the selected category.  

Transcription of excerpts is incomplete.  For current status, please see "Transcribed Sources" on the Search Engine page.  To assist with completion, please see "Contributors" page. 

DEUTERONOMY — 6:4 one

Torah Book & Portion, Book of Deuteronomy, Va'etchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11), Source Book Keys, DORFFDRAG
Page(s): 60 ft. 70
DEUT202 The need for Unity with Diversity. Rabbinic sources demonstrate the necessity and legitimacy of vigorous disagreement within a unified, coherent community. It is, of course, not easy to balance the twin needs for unity and diversity; each of us must discover and examine the grounds for our own beliefs and practices, stretching to see the reasons why others believe and act as they do; and each community must determine the limits of dissent that it can tolerate and still remain cohesive. Modern theories attempt to do this in a much more diversified setting than talmudic and medieval rabbis ever contemplated, one characterized not only by physical dispersion but also by widely varying forms of being Jewish. In such circumstances, it is not surprising that the theories I have considered differ significantly in the extent to which they validate the beliefs and practices of others, but the very attempt to articulate such theories bespeaks the strongly felt need to retain unity within our diversity. According to the Talmud, just as Jews put on phylacteries (tefillin-- the leather straps worn on the arm and head during daily morning prayer), so too does God. The phylacteries that Jews wear bear the verse, “Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4). God's phylacteries bear the verse, “Who is like Your people Israel, one nation in the world.” (I Chronicles 17:21; B. Berachot 6a). Neither unity has been sufficiently achieved. Three times each day in the Aleinu prayer, Jews pray that God's unity might be acknowledged by all people. The unity of the people is real, with its vigorous diversity intact, must also be the object of our work and prayers, just as it is on the mind of God.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUTERONOMY — 6:5 heart

Torah Book & Portion, Book of Deuteronomy, Va'etchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11), Source Book Keys, DORFFDRAG
Page(s): 10-11 ft. 31
DEUT204 ... the Rabbis said, “Come let us ascribe merit to our ancestors; for if they had not sinned, we should not have come into the world.” (B. Avodah Zarah 5a) Clearly, “sinned” here cannot be taken literally, for it is not a sin but rather a very good thing for married couples to fulfill the commandment to procreate. Thus the Talmud there must mean that during sexual intercourse couples are under the influence of the evil impulse. The evil impulse, then, refers simply to natural -- and especially sexual -- instincts, which are not evil in themselves but which, when unguided by the laws of the Torah, can lead people to sin. Hence the Rabbis could understandably say that the Torah’s commandment to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:5) -- where the word for “heart” is spelled unusually with two Hebrew letter bets rather than with just one-- refers to loving God “with both impulses-- the good and the evil.” (Sifrei Devarim par. 32). That is, we should serve God with both our natural instincts and with our moral consciousness. The trick, then, is not to root out our sexual and other desires altogether but rather to channel them to good purpose, as defined by the Torah. The Rabbis harbored no illusions that this is easy; indeed, rabbinic literature abounds in descriptions of how difficult it is to live a moral life. (See, for example, B. Sukkot 52a). They also prescribed a variety of methods for overcoming temptation when it occurs, including, but not limited to, engaging in study of the Torah, God's “antidote” to the evil impulse. (B. Kiddushin 30b. For other receipts, see B. Berachot 5a; B. Avodah Zarah 5b; and, most remarkably, B. Hagigah 16a). Moreover, when someone does something wrong, the Jewish tradition prescribes a specific path of teshuvah (literally: return) to the proper moral path and to the good graces of God and those he or she has wronged. (M.T. Law of Return, esp. chaps. 1 and 2). Thus, in the end, the moral life, with its choices, its responsibilities, its missteps, and its modes of repair, is an integral part of what it means to be human.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

RSS
12345678910111213
Back To Top