Ethics

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Implications of the Akeida: Part 2- Human Knowledge of the Good
Rabbi Ezra Bick | 35 minutes
In the second part of this series, we challenge and reject the notion that Abraham forfeits the ethical in order to obey God, or that it is impossible for man to come to know the ethical or moral truth of his own accord. On the contrary, we argue that there is an independent idea of “good" that man can indeed come to know, and that God also does not command the impossible or the unethical.
Implications of the Akeida - Part 4: Prophetic and Religious Challenges of the Akeida
Rabbi Ezra Bick | 32 minutes
In this fourth instalment of the Akeida series, we discuss the nature of prophecy, the limits of Ahavat Hashem (the commandment to love God), and the goals of the Torah. We examine the Rambam’s point of view as we wonder about the challenge inherent in the Akeida. Is this episode a challenge for Avraham, for God (as it were), or for the rest of the world?
Turbulence in the Northern Kingdom
Rabbi Alex Israel
Our chapter depicts the instability of the Northern kingdom. Each house of royalty is brought to an abrupt end by bloody assassinations, as opportunists seize the throne time after time. If God approved of Basha’s act of deposing the royal House of Yerovam, then why is Basha condemned later for the self same act? Was it divinely ordained and approved or was it an act of evil? Does the fact that this result was decreed by God free Basha from responsibility? The choice of Shomron as the capital by Omri puts the capital on the main trade route from north to south.
The Young Moshe
Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein
Moshe's young adult life in Midyan is a mystery to us. The Torah does not tell us very much about Moshe's life there; the next mention of his life is when he returns to Egypt at the age of eighty. Why is the Torah strangely silent about all those years of Moshe's life, mid-narrative? The lack of noteworthy events is itself an event - one of withdrawal and seclusion. Moshe's disappearance and silence following his escape to Midyan tell us that he secluded himself in a crisis of morality and justice. It is only following this seclusion that Moshe is able to be extracted from his solitary existence and returned to the sphere of action on the historical-national level.
Parshat Mattot - War Ethics
Rabbi Alex Israel | 37 minutes
Parashat Mattot presents us with considerable challenges. Much of it is very technical in nature, and seems to contain three distinct, seemingly disconnected chapters: Chapter 30 discusses laws of vows, chapter 31 deals with the war against the Midianites and the spoils from the war, and chapter 32 narrates the request and plan for the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and Menashe to act as shock-troops and then settle land on the eastern side of the Jordan.

Our focus in this shiur is the equal division of the spoils of war, which ultimately connect the three chapters of this parasha. Why does Judaism devote so much energy to this topic? Why do we need organized legal arrangements about the spoils of vanquished enemies? We explore ethical, tactical, and theological approaches to this question.
What's Wrong with Taking Spoils?
Rabbi Alex Israel
Perfidious Friends
Rabbi Ben-Tzion Spitz
Ethics and the Exodus
Rabbi Jonathan Snowbell | 19 minutes
Bnei Yisrael are about to leave Egypt, and in fulfilment of God's earlier statement, they ask their Egyptian neighbors for vessels and clothing. We return to God's promise to Moshe at the burning bush about women borrowing from their neighbors, and that Moshe is to request permission for Bnei Yisrael to go to the desert for three days. Why is all this deception necessary? Why is the request not more upfront? What do we do when we are faced with apparently competing values and questions about Divine morality? Is there a deeper ethical value behind this structure of events? If one of the goals of the Exodus saga is for Pharaoh to recognize God out of his free will, then Moshe's request of Pharaoh must be something reasonable.
Judaism’s Three Voices
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The nineteenth chapter of Vayikra, with which our parsha begins, is one of the supreme statements of the ethics of the Torah. It’s about the right, the good and the holy, and it contains some of Judaism’s greatest moral commands: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” and “Let the stranger who lives among you be like your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt.”

But the chapter is also surpassingly strange. It contains what looks like a random jumble of commands, many of which have nothing whatever to do with ethics and only the most tenuous connection with holiness.

What have these to do with the right, the good and the holy?

To understand this we have to engage in an enormous leap of insight into the unique moral/social/spiritual vision of the Torah, so unlike anything we find elsewhere.

Through an examination of the text, we can understand that the strange collection of commands in Kedoshim turns out not to be strange at all. The holiness code sees love and justice as part of a total vision of an ordered universe in which each thing, person and act has their rightful place, and it is this order that is threatened when the boundary between different kinds of animals, grain, fabrics is breached. An ordered universe is a moral universe, a world at peace with its Creator and itself.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Mishlei - Part 1: Introducing Mishlei
Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen | 33 minutes
Mishlei is a book of philosophical poetry, relating to the deeper messages of our lives. A proper understanding of its themes - religiosity, wisdom, personal growth, and the relationship among them - can only be understood through a careful literary analysis of the poetry.

We begin the first shiur in this series with the very beginning of the book: the first of the set of short poems. We set out to understand how the key themes of wisdom, ethics, and justice are expressed through these poems.

short ideas that look so easy, so obvious, so accessible, that until you analyze them you don’t realize how much effort is necessary – in order to expend those efforts effectively, one needs to have yirat Hashem at the head of it all.

What does the first part of Misheli tell us? In the various stages of development, there are different types of wisdom, different aspects of one's personality. Wisdom will touch you on whatever level you have attained and will move you ahead – but only if you are willing to approach it with Yirat Hashem (Fear of God) and humility -not as the chacham (clever one) but as the navon (discerning one).
Mishlei - Part 4: A Treasure Hunt
Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen | 37 minutes
In this fourth part of this Mishlei series, we will study stiudy fourth poem- the entire second chapter of Mishlei.

In this chapter we enter into spiritual knowledge and delve into philosophy in the religious sense. If you are searching for treasure – you will be looking in a particular place. If you want to succeed in studying for spiritual knowledge, you will need to search with sustained effort, but it also must be done from excitement and enjoyment. Natural wisdom depends on you calling back to nature. Spiritual wisdom comes if God decides to give it to you, but you can call out to him, too - in a form of tefilla. We look at the metaphor of the "bad woman" and the "bad man" who try to steer people astray. We examine some philosophical aspects of mitzvot, and discuss reward and punishment.

What you make of the world is what the world makes of you.
Nechama Leibowitz's Teachings and Methodology
Dr. Avigail Rock
תאריך פרסום: 5777 | | Hour
Dr. Nehama Leibowitz pioneered the modern scientific discipline of the study of parshanut. Her students who studied with her in person and by mail (through her famous “gilyonot) came from all walks of life. In this shiur, we explore Dr. Nehama Leibowitz’s Tanakh methodology and personality, drawing on her writings and anecdotes. We will examine different aspects of her approach to peshat and derash, structure and meaning, and insights about ethics and human behavior, using varied examples from the Biblical text.
Mishlei - Part 6: Heaven and Earth
Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen | 18 minutes
In this 6th part of our series, we will look at the second half of the third chapter of Mishlei: the seventh poem. This poem about morality and the realization of wisdom seems to be made up of three distinct poems, yet is actually one cohesive whole. What does it mean that “God established the earth with wisdom”? We examine a series of moral arguments and try to understand the meaning in context, while unpacking the parable of the earth and sky– static and dynamic elements, respectively. We consider how they represent different aspects of humankind’s relationship with wisdom, and how they contribute to finding the elusive definition of being on the straight path.
Mishlei - Part 7: Ethics, Wisdom, and Enlightenment
Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen | 34 minutes
In this seventh instalment, we return to the end of the third chapter and then move onto the first part of the fourth chapter of Mishlei. The poem in the beginning of the fourth chapter relates to the idea of strengthening our personalities through studying mussar (ethics) and hokhma (wisdom), both of which develop us and enable us to be more enlightened and involved in the world.
Mishlei - Part 12: Concluding the First Book of Mishlei
Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen | 45 minutes
In our final shiur on the first Book of Mishlei, we will notice that the last two poems serve as a summary of the basic ideas that we have studied: the relationship between the fear of God and wisdom, natural wisdom and what it means to be pushed away from developing the potential for wisdom, approaching God through wisdom, and the possibility and pitfalls of being led astray.

We will look at the last five verses of the eighth chapter which constitute the penultimate poem, and then we will move on to the ninth chapter – the last chapter of the first part of Mishlei. Why does the text say that one who hates wisdom loves death? Why cannot it not say that one who loves wisdom loves life? Natural wisdom is necessary to develop one’s potential goodness, but it is wrong to equate it with goodness in and of itself. Wisdom along with spirituality, morality and ethics will make life better and can lead to the potential for closeness with God.
Implications of the Akeida Part 9: Moral Ambiguity and Competing Values
Rabbi Ezra Bick | 33 minutes
In this shiur, we examine a strange midrash whose implications are not entirely clear. In the midrash, the Accusing Angel goads Avraham, trying to prevent him from continuing with his task. He appeals to human emotion, saying that even if Avraham can withstand this impossible test – it is just a precursor to other, even more challenging tests. He also argues that Avraham will bear full responsibility for his actions, which will have no benefit to anyone: “Tomorrow, God will say that you are a murderer and completely guilty.” The angel tells Yitzhak (who ostensibly agrees to cooperate with Avraham’s plan) that if he dies, apart from Sarah being heartbroken at having her son stolen away, Yishmael will inherit the special things Sarah labored to give to Yitzhak. At this point, according to the midrash, Yitzhak asks his father“where are the sheep for slaughter” as a plea for mercy.

What is this argument, and why is this the climax? Is the prospect of losing material items to be viewed as more horrible than the prospect of theft or killing?

Ultimately, rational ethics are more complicated in real life. When removed from the abstract, in the messiness of life, values are complicated and can clash in unexpected ways.
Mishlei Perek 1 (Continued)
Tanach Study
Shani Taragin | 15 minutes
In the first perek of Mishlei the father turns directly to the son and emphasizes the importance of following his parents’ guidance and Torah.

Courtesy of www.tanachstudy.com
Mishlei Perek 2
Tanach Study
Shani Taragin | 18 minutes
Perek 2 continues the same theme of a parent speaking to a child and explaining the advantages of ethical behaviour and a moral lifestyle, but adds an additional incentive for staying on the correct path.

Courtesy of www.tanachstudy.com
Mishlei Perek 3
Tanach Study
Shani Taragin | 19 minutes
Perek 3 continues with the parental messages of morality and ethical behavior to the child, with a focus on the constant cognizance of God as a way of keeping on the right path.

Courtesy of www.tanachstudy.com
Mishlei Perek 4
Tanach Study
Shani Taragin | 18 minutes
After a collection of epithets from the previous perakim, perek 4 is a continuation of the advice and wisdom from the father to the son.

Courtesy of www.tanachstudy.com
Birthrights and Blessings
Rabbi Yair Kahn
Upon reaching old age, Yitzchak decides to bless his first born and favorite son – Esav. Rivka overhears the plan and concocts a plot to “steal” the berakhot for Yaakov, her favorite. The plot succeeds and Yaakov is blessed. This story raises many serious exegetical and ethical issues. How could Yitzchak be fooled by Esav? Why was it necessary to trick Yitzchak? Why couldn’t Rivka simply have spoken to her husband? How can fooling one’s elderly blind father be considered ethically acceptable behavior? On the other hand, if it’s not ethical, do ends justify the means? Through a close analysis of the text we will present two approaches, which deal with the difficulties in very different ways and discuss the question of human involvement in God’s plan.