Simeon and Levi are a pair/Their weapons are tools of lawlessness. Let not their person be included in my council/Let not my being be counted in their assembly. (Parashat Vayehi, Genesis 49:5)
In my commentary on these verses last year, I suggested that Simeon and Levi represent the Torah’s paradigm for unchecked, unmitigated violence. This past [...]
Archive for the ‘Gun Control’ Category
Tools of Lawlessness
Posted in Current Events, Gun Control, Judaism, Politics, Religion, Torah Commentary on December 21, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Night of Our Disavowal: A Sermon for Kol Nidre
Posted in Gun Control, High Holidays, Judaism, Nonviolence, Peace, Religion, Sermons on September 25, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Here’s an excerpt from the sermon I gave this past Friday on Erev Yom Kippur:
In the end, I believe the path set out for us by our tradition guides us still. The violence in our midst cannot be ignored or wished away. We must acknowledge it, we must face it, and yes, we must respond [...]
Guns and Our National Sickness
Posted in Current Events, Gun Control, Politics, Religion, Religion/Politics on April 19, 2007 | 7 Comments »
The young man who killed 31 people at Virginia Tech was a paranoid delusional psychotic. But there is something equally sick about a society that allows such a person to walk into a gun shop and buy two deadly firearms as easily as he would a candy bar.
According to my spiritual tradition, the most sacrosanct [...]
Collateral Damage
Posted in Gun Control, Judaism, Religion, Torah Commentary on June 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
As this week’s Torah portion opens, a prominent Israelite named Korach ben Yizhar, together with two hundred and fifty chieftains, publicly revolts against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Korach’s grievance is is expressed thus:
They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, [...]
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