The Forecast Calls for... Justice

 

Meet Meshi Kleinstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74uj4lYKzMg

and the finished scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPkIudix_TY

 

PARSHA

Reminding God to be Righteous

Quiz

The destruction of Sodom

Midrash on why

 

 

ABRAHAM REMINDS GOD TO BE  RIGHTEOUS FOR THE RIGHTEOUS

When the three men [Abraham had been hosting] got ready to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked part of the way with them. Adonai spoke inwardly, “Should I tell Abraham what I am going to do, since his family will become a great and powerful nation that will be a blessing to all the other nations on earth? I have chosen him to teach his family to obey me forever and to do what is right and fair. If they do, I will give Abraham many descendants, just as I promised.” So Adonai said, “Abraham, I have heard such an outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, that their evil is so heavy! Now I am going down to see for Myself they are acting like that outcry, and I will know if not.”

The men turned and started toward Sodom. But Adonai stayed with Abraham. And Abraham asked him, “Adonai, when you destroy the evil people, are you also going to destroy those who are good? What if there are fifty righteous people in it? You surely wouldn't wipe out the city and not forgive it if there are fifty righteous people there. You are the judge of all the earth, and you must do justice!”  Adonai replied, “If I find fifty good people in Sodom, I will save the city to keep them from being killed.”

Abraham answered, “I am nothing more than the dust of the earth. Please forgive me, Adonai, for daring to speak to you like this. But suppose there are only forty-five righteous  people in Sodom. Would you still wipe out the whole city?”

“If I find forty-five Tzadikim,” Adonai replied, “I won't destroy the city.”-

“Suppose there are just forty righteous people?” Abraham asked. “Even for them,” Adonai replied, “I won't destroy the city.”  Abraham said, “Please don't be angry, Adonai, if I ask you what you will do if there are only thirty righteous  people in the city.” “If I find thirty,” God replied, “I still won't destroy it.” Then Abraham said, “I don't have any right to ask you, Adonai, but what would you do if you find only twenty?” “Because of them, I won't destroy the city,” was Adonai's answer.

Finally, Abraham said, “Please don't get angry, God, if I speak just once more. Suppose you find only ten righteous people there.” “For the sake of ten righteous  people,” Adonai told him, “I still won't destroy the city.” After speaking with Abraham, God ascended, and Abraham went back to his home.

 

 

 

1)     This quiz is mostly on Sulfur.  That sounds like chemistry, not the Torah portion. Has Mar Hirsch gone and lost his mind this time?

a)    Yes, he’s flipped his lid. Popped his cork.  Pringled his brainpan.

b)    Maybe he’s  whiffed his wuffle,  it’s hard to tell.  Maybe not.

c)     Obviously he has finally Zippled his zongle. 

d)    I don’t think so, he may just be joking.

e)     I think he’s got some kind of connection between them, dude.

 

2)    How common is sulfur in the universe (by mass)?

a)    Incredibly rare, as it needs water to form.

b)    Rare, but not exceedingly so.

c)     Common-  like tenth most common element.

d)    Super common, right after Hydrogen and Helium.

e)     Sulfur is the single most common element in the universe. Stars are made of sulfur, dude. 

 

3)    What color is solid Sulfur?

a)    Periwinkle.

b)    Canary Yellow

c)     Royal Blue

d)    A deep crimson.

e)     Don’t be fooled,  dude, sulfur is a transparent gas.

 

4)    How common is sulfur in the earth’s crust?

a)    Incredibly common, with all the water on earth

b)    Really common, like 5^th most common element in the crust.

c)     Common,  like tenth most common element, like in the rest of the universe

d)    Rare,  like platinum or something.

e)     Sulfur is the single most rare element in the universe. It’s millions of dollars an ounce, dude.

 

5)    Sulfur melts at what temperature Celsius?

a)    32 degrees.

b)    100 degrees

c)     115 degrees

d)    200 degrees

e)     1,875.23 degrees.

 

6)    What color is molten sulfur?

a)    Periwinkle.

b)    Canary Yellow

c)     Royal Blue

d)    A deep Crimson.

e)     Don’t be fooled,  dude, sulfur never melts, it just burns. 

 

7)    What does it mean if a meteor ends in an Airburst?

a)    It means it was never visible to the human eye

b)    It means the meteor burst up before hitting the ground

c)     It means the meteor bursts up before entering the atmosphere

d)    It means that the meteor made a glittery streak across the sky.

e)     It means the Jewish space lasers have failed.

 

8)    What color is sulfur when it burns?

a)    Periwinkle.

b)    Canary Yellow

c)     Royal Blue

d)    A deep Crimson.

e)     Dude, sulfur doesn’t burn, it explodes.  

 

9)    What famous sushi roll is named for the water sprites featured in Harry Potter?  (nothing to do with sulfur, just raw trivia)

a)    Tekka Maki

b)    Hoso maki

c)     Futomaki

d)    Kappa Maki

e)     Hirschen Maki

 

10) Burning sulfur produces SO2,  Sulfur dioxide.  What happens when that reacts with water?

a)    It makes nothing. SO2 does not react with water.

b)    It releases its oxygen back into nature.

c)     It makes carbon disulfide, which is inert and doesn’t do much.

d)    It makes  Hydrogen Sulfide, which stinks so bad it is what you smell in natural gas.

e)     It makes sulfuric acid, dude!  Acid Rain! Lung Damage!  Evil stuff, dude!

 

11)  What the heck does this have to do with the Parsha? Take a guess.

 

 

 

 

 

THE FALL OF SODOM AND ITS SUBURBS:  BERAYSHEET 19

Two of the angels who visited Abraham and Sarah traveled on to Sodom.  Loht, Avrom’s nephew, is the only one in the town who offers them shelter overnight.  When the rest of the town finds out there are travelers in town, they come to assault the travelers and Loht, but they are driven back by the Sanveirim of the angels. And then…

The two angels said to Loht, “Adonai has heard many terrible things about the people of Sodom, and so has sent us here to destroy the city. Take your family and leave. Take every relative you have in the city, as well as the men your daughters are going to marry.” Loht went to the men who were engaged to his daughters and said, “Hurry up and get out of here! Adonai is going to destroy this city.” But they thought he was joking, and they laughed at him.

Early the next morning the two angels tried to make Loht hurry and leave. They said, “Take your wife and your two daughters and get away from here as fast as you can! If you don't, every one of you will be killed when Adonai destroys the city.” Loht ֓hesitated instead of leaving. But Adonai wanted to save him, so the angels took Loht, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city. When they were outside, one of the angels said, “Run for your lives! Don't even stop to look back. And don't stop in the valley! Run to the hills, only there will you be safe.”

The sun was coming up as Loht reached the suburb of Zoar,  and Adonai sent burning sulfur down like rain on Sodom and Gomorrah. God destroyed those cities and everyone who lived in them, as well as their land and the trees and grass that grew there. On the way, Loht's wife stopped to look back and became like a pillar of salt.

That same morning Abraham got up and went to the place where he had stood and spoken with Adonai. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and saw smoke rising from all over the land—it was like a flaming furnace. Yet it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley where Loht lived, he remembered his promise to Abraham and saved Loht from the terrible destruction.

 

THE PEOPLE OF SODOM AND THEIR LAWS

  Mishnah, Avot 5:13

אַרְבַּע מִדּוֹת בָּאָדָם. הָאוֹמֵר שֶׁלִּי שֶׁלִּי וְשֶׁלְּךָ שֶׁלָּךְ, זוֹ מִדָּה בֵינוֹנִית. וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים, זוֹ מִדַּת סְדוֹם. שֶׁלִּי שֶׁלְּךָ וְשֶׁלְּךָ שֶׁלִּי, עַם הָאָרֶץ. שֶׁלִּי שֶׁלְּךָ וְשֶׁלְּךָ שֶׁלָּךְ, חָסִיד. שֶׁלִּי שֶׁלִּי וְשֶׁלְּךָ שֶׁלִּי, רָשָׁע:

There are four temperaments among people: the one who says "what is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours" -- that's an [average] temperament. And there are some who say that is the temperament of Sodom. [A second type is one who says] "what is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine" -- [that's an] am ha'aretz . "What is mine is yours, and what is yours is yours" -- [that's a] pious person. "What is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine" -- [that's a] wicked person. 

Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer (Midrash)  25

Rabbi Zeira said: “The people of Sodom were the wealthiest people in the world since they were from the richest and best soil of the world and all of their early needs could be derived from it, as it says: “its dust contains gold dust” (Job 28:6). When a person wanted to go out and get for himself vegetables, he would say to his servant, “get for me an issar worth of veggies.” The servant would go and harvest the greens and find gold in the soil, as it says: “its dust contains gold dust.” And silver would come out of it, as it is written: “There is a mine for silver.” (Job 28:1) Precious stones and jewels would come out of it: “Its rocks are a source of sapphire.” (verse 6) Rabbi Joshua ben Korha said: Yet they were never concerned with food for guests and strangers;  rather, they would cut of the branches of fruit trees above the fruit so as not to provide benefit to birds of the skies: “No bird of prey knows the path of it.” (Job 28:7)

 

 

 

BAVLI  SANHEDRIN 109b

A) There were four judges in Sodom:   Shak’rai (The Liar) , Sha’kurai (The Lying Liar), Zay’yafi (The Forger), and Matzle-Dina (The Perverter of Justice).

·       If one cut off the ear of his fellow’s donkey, they would order, “Give the donkey to him [the attacker] to make the ear grow back.”

·       If one wounded his fellow they would say to him [the victim], “Give him a fee for making you bleed.”

·       He who crossed over with the ferry had to pay four zuzim, while he who crossed through the water on his own had to pay eight.

·       If one put out rows of bricks out for sale every person came and took one, saying, “I only took one.”  If one spread out garlic or onions [to dry them], every person came and took one, saying, “I only took one.”

 

B) On one occasion, a certain cloth merchant happened to come there. Said they to him, “Give us four zuzim [for the use of the ferry].” But, protested he, “I crossed through the water!” “If so,” said they, “you must give eight zuzim for passing through the water.” He refused to give it, so they beat him severely. He went before the judge, who told the merchant “Give them a fee for bleeding you and eight zuzim for crossing through the water.” 

 

Now Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, happened to be there and had also been beaten. When he went before the judge, the judge said, “Give them a fee for making you bleed.” Thereupon Eliezer took a stone and struck the judge. “What is this?!” the Judge exclaimed. Eliezer replied, “The fee that you now owe me for bloodletting,  give to this man [who attacked me], and my money will remain just as it is.”

 

 C) Now, they had beds upon which travelers slept. If he [the guest] was too long, they shortened him [by lopping off his feet]; if too short, they stretched him out. Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, happened to be there. Said they to him, “Why not get up [off the ground where you are resting] and sleep on this bed!” He replied, “Oh, what a shame! I have vowed since the day of my mother’s death not to sleep in a bed.”

 

 

 

B’REYSHEET  18:20-21

 (כ) וַיֹּאמֶר יְקֹוָק זַעֲקַת סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה כִּי רָבָּה וְחַטָּאתָם כִּי כָבְדָה מְאֹד:

(כא) אֵרֲדָה נָּא וְאֶרְאֶה הַכְּצַעֲקָתָהּ הַבָּאָה אֵלַי עָשׂוּ כָּלָה וְאִם לֹא אֵדָעָה:

20 And the LORD said: ‘Verily, the cry ( זעקת ) of Sodom and Gomorrah is great ( רבה ), and, for sure their sin is most serious. 21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to her cry ( הכצעקתה ), which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know.’ 22

B’REYSHEET RABBAH 49:6-

Rabbi Levi said: “God said ‘Even if I wished to keep silent, justice for a certain young woman does not permit Me to keep silent.” For it once happened that two girls in Sodom went down to draw water from a well. One said to the other, ‘Why are you so pale?’ ‘We have no more food left and are ready to die,’ replied the second. What did the first girl  do? She filled her pitcher with flour and they exchanged [their pitchers], each taking the other’s. When they [the Sodomites] discovered this, they took and burnt her alive for violating the law: “what is yours is yours”. Said the Holy Blessed One: ‘Even if I desired to be silent, justice for that young girl does not permit Me to keep silent!"

 Hence it does not say, whether they have done according to their cry [namely, the cry of the Sodomites]; but ACCORDING TO HER CRY ‘- the cry of that young woman.

 

 

 

Religious Vs. Observant, and now that you have it, what do you do with it?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSs5EPXawYE

 

Hebrew			English
אֲנִי			I, me
אַתָּה			you (m. sing.)
אַתְּ			you (f. sing.)
הוּא			He/Him
הִיא			She/Her
אֲנַחְנוּ			We/Us
אַתֶּם			You/Y’all (m. pl.)
אַתֶּן			You/Y’all (f. pl.)
הֵם			They/them (m. pl.)
הֵן			They/them (f. pl.)

 

 

Conservative Judaism’s Beginnings

 

While the roots of Conservative Judaism were in Europe,  there were two sources of  the movement in American. One source of the Conservative movement began as an effort to “conserve” traditional Judaism in the face of the major innovations and changes Reform leaders in the late 19th century were making to Judaism.  The Jewish  Theological Seminary of America, which would become the source of leadership of  the Conservative movement, was founded in 1886 — one year after the Reform movement adopted its Pittsburgh Platform.

 

That platform explicitly rejected Jewish practices such as keeping kosher, praying in Hebrew, or hoping of a return to Eretz Yisrael, which Reform thinkers  such as Issac Mayer Wise viewed as inconsistent with modern ideas.  It was the modern ideas that they felt should come first; they believed the practices of Judaism would have to fit modernity.  The rabbis and teachers who founded JTS sought to conserve much of the Judaism Reform was rejecting.

 

 

A smaller source of Conservative Judaism came from those Jews who wanted a version of  European Orthodoxy that was more American.  That meant that many Jews who came into the US from Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1930 still wanted a calendar full of holidays and life cycle events such as Brit Milah and Weddings to continue as guided by halacha,  but they wanted the Rabbi to speak and officiate in English. They wanted Rabbis who could talk about baseball and the Bible. They wanted a life based on Jewish Law, but with accommodations made to reflect American dress, business trends, and other parts of life in the United States.

 

Of course,  some people think the movement really began at banquet in Cincinnati in 1883,  which is a story we will read about in a few weeks.

 

 

1.      The Torah has how many books?

a.     One

b.     Five

c.     Ten

d.     Twelve

e.     One thousand, six hundred and fifty seven. And a third.

 

2.     The Tanakh is the Torah with?

a.     The Haftorah readings and commentary

b.     The books of the prophets

c.     The books of the sages- like the Mishnah and midrash

d.     The books of writings- books like Esther and the Psalms

e.     B and C

f.      C and D

g.     B and D

h.     B, C and D.

i.       This question is insane, and the answer is A, B, C and D.

 

 

3.     “A Torah” or “The torah”  is the scroll, but when we say  “Torah” alone, what does that mean?

a.     It still just means a scroll

b.     It means all of Jewish law and learning

c.     It means the teaching of one’s rabbi

d.     It means the basic ideals of Judaism

e.      All of the above

 

 

 

4.     How old is the oldest chunk of Torah scroll we have?

a.     4000 years or so

b.     2000 years or so

c.     1000 years or so

d.     500 years or so

e.     100 years or so

 

5.     What does the last letter of the Torah  and the first letter of the torah spell together?

a.     It spells Lev, or heart

b.     It spells Eish, or fire

c.     It spells Gett, or divorce

d.     It spells Af, or nose

e.     It spells Zij, which is just gibberish

 

6.     How old are the oldest use of words from the Torah we have found?

a.     About 50 years old.

b.     About 250 years old.

c.     About 1000 years old.

d.     About 2000 years old.

e.     About 2700 years old.

 

7.     Can women write torah scrolls?

a.     What? No, it has to be a real rabbi, like with the black hat and beard

b.     What? No, that’s against tradition

c.     What? Maybe, but they would have to be Orthodox

d.     What? Sure,  but they have to train and learn a lot.

e.     What? Women have always written Torah scrolls.

 

8.     What do you call someone who writes Torah scrolls?

a.     Sofer/Soferet

b.     Shomer/Shomeret

c.     Soger/Sogeret

d.     Kofer/Koferet

e.     Mechutan/Machatensiteh

 

9.     How many verses are there in the torah? How many words are there in the torah? How many letters?

a.     585, 7,997, and 30,480

b.     5852,  79,976,  and 304,805

c.     58,523. 790,761,  and 3,048,056

d.     It depends on if it is A Reform, Conservative or Orthodox Torah.

e.     Fool! Everyone knowns each torah is written differently.

 

10.  What happens at Anshe Emet if someone drops a Torah scroll?

a.     The person who dropped it has to fast until they die.

b.     The person who dropped it has to fast for 40 days, sunrise to sunset.

c.     40 people in the congregation have to fast for a day.

d.     We hold a meeting to see what happened and fix it.

e.     We kick the person out of the community and never let them come back.

 

 

Who Wrote the Torah? -- The Most Common Approaches and Their Adherents.

Category/Approach	Theory	Ultra O	Modern O	Conservative	Reform	Academics
Divine: God alone gave the Torah to Humanity
Verbal Revelation Lamm, Berkovits	“Torah Mi-Sinai” Exact text of Torah today is from God only via Moses at Mt. Sinai. All  Torah Sheh Ba’al Peh was included as well.	JJ	J	L	L	NNN
Divine  Revelation- The “Hamotzi” approach	“Torah Min Ha’shamayim” All the Torah is from God,  Torah Sheh Ba’al Peh as well, in one way or another, not only       via Moses.	K	JJ	K	L	NNN
Divine and Human:  God partnered with Humans
Restoration of Revelation Halivni, Roth	“The Court of Ezra”:  Multiple schools and conduits recorded and expanded God’s revelation in different ways, as God intended for them to do. From these sources the original revelation was restored by Ezra’ court.	L	J	Mostly K But some JJ	K	NNNN
Divinely Inspired: The conduit for Torah is Humanity.
Continuous Revelation Bosker, Gordis	“Torat Nevi’im”  Jews recorded of a set of revelations from God over time; that revelation continues today.	L	L	JJ	J	L
Progressive Revelation	“Ruach Ha’kodesh ” The Torah is Divine inspiration of human words. Over time, we better understand what God wills.	L	L	J	JJ	L
Human Authors: The Torah is a purely human creation
Humanist Kaplan	“No Revelation”: The Torah is important for us because it is the Jewish people’s history, customs, and wisdom.	NNN	L	K Recon: JJ	J	L
Academic I Wellhausen, Simkovitch	Documentary Hypothesis- groups with agendas (priests, royalty, and others) each wrote one of four fictional sources, a special editor later edited them into one work (“JPED”)	NNN	K	JJ	J	L or JJ
Academic II, III Yoreh	Other Hypotheses:  Supplemental Hyp. says E came first and the others built upon it, Fragmentary H says there are so many sources.	NNN	K	JJ	J	L or JJ
KEY: J-  This is the right way to see it. JJ- Oh boy, is this great!  K- We don’t like it much, and it’s probably wrong, we just can’t  prove it. L- No intelligent person would ever believe this.   NNN- This idea is the worst idea ever in the history of everything ever.  NNNN- Actually, this is even worse!  We won’t even admit this exists.                                                                                       ©2025, M. Hirsch.

 

  

 

Heschel, “God in Search of Man”

The essence of our faith in the sanctity of the Bible is that its words contain that which God wants us to know and to fulfill. How these words were written down is not the fundamental problem. This is why the theme of Biblical criticism is not the theme of faith, just as the question of whether the lightning and thunder at Sinai were a natural phenomenon or not is irrelevant to our faith in revelation.

 The assumption of some commentators that the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) was given on a rainy day does not affect our conception of the event.

The act of revelation is a mystery, while the record of revelation is a literary fact, phrased in the language of man.

 

So if the way the words of the Torah were written down is not the fundamental problem for Heschel, what is the problem?

 

What is a Teshuvah?

Lucas Teshuva

https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/19912000/lucas_tattooing.pdf