This series is designed to provide thoughts and guidance on moral issues in Jewish Holy Day observance and scripture.
Biblical & Historical Chronology and Context
Chronology of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs |
2016
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now!
|
DESCRIPTION: The veracity of the Bible has little support from chronicles of contemporary peoples or sources prior to 1000 BCE. It is certainly true that contemporary archaeology has convinced many professional scholars and lay readers that the biblical narrative and legendary texts of enslavement in Egypt, wilderness wandering, and conquest of the land are unhistorical. For example, the independent records at the time of Exodus reveal no massive crossings or passing by tens of thousands of Israelites at Egyptian toll booths.
Nonetheless this author approaches surviving stories and written texts as retrospective compilations of older authentic oral traditions, at a time before there were written papyri or scrolls. This analysis attempts to interpolate the chronology of the patriarchs and the matriarchs pre-settlement period through interpolation with works in other cultures the patriarchs and matriarchs. It forms the basis of my four volume work, The Birth of Moral Reasoning.
|
|
Atonement: Wrongness, Confession and Repentance
A Yom Kippur Study Resource
Digital Download |
2011
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now!
|
DESCRIPTION: Secular society understands error in very different ways than religion. In secular society, not only do we suffer from “error blindness” (that is, we often can’t see our own mistakes) but also, logically, we cannot say “I am wrong”. Admitting a notional error means that it is past, not present. In other words, we can be wrong, or we can know it, but not both. As soon as we know we are wrong, we aren’t wrong anymore.
Continue reading...
This contrasts with religious perspectives, where error is real-time and rooted in distance from one-ness with G-d. Our step one challenge, identifying wrong, is made more difficult because we live deeply and seriously in both the religious and secular worlds. Atonement needs be directed both to man and G-d. On this day, He will atone for you to purify you from all your sins. Atonement requires two to make one. It is a conscious unity where we each strive to be together with our Maker. It is about return to the Covenant, about “at-one-ment” with the Creator. For we are not so arrogant and stiff necked as to say before you, Adonai our G-d and G-d of all ages, we are perfect and have not sinned.
Who this Study Session is for:
This study session should stimulate personal thoughts on enhancing meaningful teshuvah for secular and religious Jews. For both groups, repentance cannot be its own completion: prayers and good deeds without repair and restitution cannot yield forgiveness. The atonement required of us moves beyond silent self-scrutiny and verbal confession to a necessary range of efforts involving repair, restitution and reconciliation.
Questions are posed about when restitution isn’t always possible (for example, murder), but our tradition mandates that a reasonable, responsible attempt needs to be made. Secular or humanistic answers are different than religious ones. And religious answers vary depending upon the source. When money is involved, specific texts speak differently about giving a sum to whomever one has wronged, which for some sages is 25% rather than 20%. If no kin or wronged party can be found, restitution ritually is to be to a kohen or beit din. What about anonymous, concealed or unrecognized atonement? Excerpts From Study Guide Questions:
1. What does it mean to atone for wrongdoing?
2. What is “at-one-ment” with G-d?
3. How is atonement different from repair, repentance and salvation?
4. What is the core of each process?
|
|
Kosher Ethics
A Special Study for Shavuot
Digital Download |
March 30, 2016
Price: USD $5.00
|
DESCRIPTION: Approximately 65% of goods in Canadian supermarkets are kosher. Principal consumers are not just Jews, but also Seventh Day Adventists, vegetarians, Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, the lactose intolerant, and animal rights adherents. Sales volume for kosher products in Canada were $480 million in 2000; $575 million in 2001; and an estimated $750 million in 2016. The Kosher food industry in North America was $12.5 billion in 2008.
What qualifies as ethical consuming? As it says in the German, Man ist was man isst! Man is what man eats. The word kosher is familiar and exacting and, at the same time, foreign and needing explication. One may think of strict rules and religious regulations, but also principles that embody the higher spirit of specific text or words. In Hebrew, “Kashrus,” from the root kosher (or “kasher”), means suitable and/or “pure”, thus ensuring fitness for consumption. It has spiritual, legal and moral dimensions for consumers, boycotters and “buy-cotters”, and producers, as well as animals and the environment, not purely or only religious ones.
The laws of “Kashrus” include a comprehensive legislation concerning permitted and forbidden foods. There are several aspects to these dietary rules, some codified and others evolving in interpretation, animal husbandry, supply chain and moral practices over time.
This study session resource identifies texts, and looks at national and international certification schemes and standards beyond meat certification to identify ethics in restaurant eating, food supply sourcing, fair wages, and shopping.
Who this Study Session is for:
This is a resource kit for consumers interested in local food co-ops, ethical food preparation in synagogues, labour and animal rights activists, environmentalists, and corporate responsibility, ethical sourcing and human rights activists.
|
Parsha Bechukosai: Moses and the Promised Land
Digital Download |
March 30, 2016
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now!
|
DESCRIPTION: This study session is in the form of a series of themes that can be used to explore not only the end of life of Moses but also the role of G-d in His treatment of his closest human teacher and friend. Mention is made of the Midianite hypothesis and the sacred oasis alternative hypotheses about how the people wandered for years in so inhospitable a desert.
The book of Leviticus cements the notion of divine-purposed covenant. We are blessed if we keep it and cursed if we don’t. This parsha focuses upon a major moral message in Judaism and its offspring western religions: G-d rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.
We read a morally-troubling narrative that Moses—the great lawgiver, the redeemer, and our mortal leader—the very Jew who leads that exodus -- will personally be denied entry to the Promised Land. Is this a personal rebuke or punishment of Moses? Is it a moral violation of G-d’s covenant with the leader of that generation? And naturally, we ask Why?
|
Parsha Vayechi: The Beauty And Significance Of Ethical Wills
Digital File | 2005
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now!
|
DESCRIPTION: What are ethical wills? Who writes them? What did they look like in the Bible, the Middle Ages, and in the last century? What meaning can they add to your lives and those of your parents and your children?
Ethical wills, or tzavaot, do not deal with the disposition of physical assets such as property, jewelry, and the like. Rather they focus on moral legacy, typically significant comments that a mother or father wants to leave for their children. After discussing and disposing of material possessions, many adults who are getting on in age, realize their own human frailty. In facing the inevitability of death, they want to touch upon the realm of morals, values and ethics. Ethical wills are often re-read on the anniversary of a parent`s death. Around the family table, at the time of yahrzeit, the reading of an ethical will by children and the children of children gives the living an opportunity to hear from a dearly departed parent or spouse.
The tradition of bequeathing a spiritual legacy either in the form of a codicil to a conventional will or a separate tzava`ah has roots in the Bible and Talmud. In the Biblical period, wills were oral. They took the form of Jacob`s blessings for his children (and Ephraim and Menassheh) and the dying request of Joseph to his brethren. Spoken Biblical wills include the addresses of Moses and Joshua to the ivri, and the advice of David to his son Solomon. Biblical testaments were invariably oral, while later generations committed them to writing. In the Apocrypha we find the address of Mathias to his sons, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the un-named mother to her Maccabean sons/martyrs.
Excerpts From Study Guide Questions:
1. What is an ethical will?
2. Who is it written for and what should it contain?
3. Have you ever seen or heard of one, and what makes a good one?
4. What would your mother`s key message be in her will to you? Is that different from your father?
|
Parsha Vayeitzei: Jacob’s Dream
Digital File |
March 30, 2016
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now!
|
DESCRIPTION: This parsha, Vayeitzei, has an important episode in the life of Jacob. We pick up the Bereshit narrative with Jacob fleeing his brother Esau`s wrath. Jacob leaves his parents` tents, and seeks shelter in Paddan-Aram, the ancestral home of the sons of Terach (the father of Abraham and Nahor) in what is modern day Syria. This study session deals with Jacob`s dream at Beth-El, chapter 28, perek 10-28.
This is Isaac`s great promise. Indeed it is the first vow in the Bible text. The rabbonim see this episode as a monumental expression of G-d`s link to the grandson of Abraham. Some of the rabbis interpret this site of Luz as Mount Moriah, in other words that, supernaturally, geography moves so that G-d forces Jacob to accept the mantle of leadership. G-d requires Jacob to see in the heavenly ladder his acceptance of a link to G-d and G-d`s will. There is a repetition of covenantal destiny.
How revolutionary were the spiritual ideals of these patriarchs and their wives? Can we explain why they were `called`? In daily life, how did they balance the sacred and the profane? What is important in one’s relationship to G-d and did this change over time? How did they walk with The Almighty? Did they handle mortal struggles like love, jealousy, greed, fear and sibling rivalry in ways that have meaning for us today? What can we learn about how to deal with murder and deception, blood lust and cruelty, or fraternal love and hatred? What about favouritism and denial, spousal love and abuse, and as well as rape, misogyny and incest? What is central to their message?
Excerpts From Study Guide Questions:
1. What does the dream of Jacob mean to you?
2. If Jacob is a deceiver toward his own brother and father, in the matter of the birthright, should his pleas be discounted by G-d?
3. Has the Almighty reason to find this pledge too conditional?
4. How might the condition or times affect how perceive the ethics of Jacob`s dream?
5. Is your communicating with G-d through dream or prayer normally conditional?
|
Parsha Shemot:
The Near Death Of Moses Before Exodus
Digital File |
2006
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now
|
DESCRIPTION: This is a complex episode in the Biblical narrative. One night, on his way to rescue his countrymen in Egypt, Moses or a member of his family is attacked by an angel of G-d and nearly succumbs. Quick wittedly, his wife Zipporah seizes a flint and circumcises one of her two sons, bringing immediate relief from the threat of death.
There is no ready motivation for the attack, and nothing apparent in the text that would readily help us understand what would cause G-d to interrupt Moses from returning to Egypt to lead his people to freedom. The intervention is a threat to the G-d-inspired return – after a long delay-- of Moses from Midian to Egypt in order to lead the ivri in an Exodus to freedom.
Excerpts From Study Guide Questions:
1. Who is being attacked and why? Is there an antecedent event in the text that would premeditate an attack on Moses and his family?
2. Is this just a piece of the narrative out of place?
3. Moses was on a divinely-inspired mission from G-d. What did this refugee who only reluctantly agreed to lead his people out of Egypt, do to prompt this murderous event? This attack threatens the whole ensuing deliverance narrative. What could Moses or one of his sons have done that was of such a serious nature that would threaten his life, thus interfering with his mission to lead the children of Israel from slavery to freedom?
4. There is no obvious relation between the circumcision that Moses’ wife performs and Moses’ grievous violation or error. May Zipporah be the only morally unambiguous person in the story—the actions of the other personae (Moses, his son, and the angel or G-dhead) are less certain. But for her quick action in cutting off a son’s foreskin, something serious would have resulted. The circumcision of one of her sons (Gershom or Eliezer) saved his life. Does she do so because her husband cannot, or will not act? Why?
5. Do you see Zipporah as heroine or villain? Is the attack as some sign of Divine reproach to patriarchs who repeatedly take up with non-Jewish women (Abraham with Hagar and Keturah; Moses with Zipporah) or alternate-Jewish-practice matriarchs (Jacob with Rachel)? Is Moses being criticized for not following the covenantal obligation of circumcising his son, born of a non-Jewish woman? And, if so, why had he not done so?
6. Does G-d want us to value right deeds over blood— such as an imperative that He or we willingly kill a son to advance the covenant?
|
Parsha Vayeira: The Akedah
Digital File |
2007
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now
|
DESCRIPTION: One of the seminal sections in all of Biblical literature is chapter 22 of Bereshit. the akedah, or binding of Isaac. Few lessons in faith, patrimony and theology are more basic than a willingness to sacrifice one’s child. Abraham attempts this premeditated violence twice – in back to back episodes; first with Ishmael, then almost immediately thereafter with Isaac.
Recent books about the dangers of religion (Richard Dawkins, The G-d Delusion; Christopher Hitchens, G-d is Not Great) are the basis for this set of faith-clarifying and reaffirming questions. This study session follows a series of themes that can be used to explore not only the sacrifice of Isaac text but also a spate of atheistic or agnostic critics of religion.
Excerpts From Study Guide Questions:
Theme Question Three: Ritual Murder of Children: Abraham argued to save city of Sodom, but not to save his own son. Why? He wouldn’t have been the first to kill a child. Can we excuse Abraham because of prevailing morality? Archaeological sites in the period 1500-500 BCE have yielded mass cultic graves containing bones of thousands of infants. Four thousand years ago, child sacrifice was common. The way many cultures and sects worshipped divinities was to ritually sacrifice children.
Theme Question Six: G-d as Source of Right Behaviour: Were you to experience a revelation of your own, is there anything that G-d could command you to do that you morally would not do? Could G-d ask you to do anything immoral—buying and selling slaves, not suffering a witch to live, or practicing an eye for an eye? How would you know His intent?
Theme Question Ten: The Ethics of Murder: Is there a place for murder in righteous behaviour, yesterday and today? The Bible speaks to our ancestors about the obligation to exterminate to Amalekites, Moabites and other Canaanite peoples. Is that a historical injunction—or one of obligation today?
|
Adam Fiction:
The First Covenant
The Birth of Moral Reasoning
Digital File |
2016
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now
|
DESCRIPTION: This study series is one of four dealing with the moral questions facing Biblical personages. Its purpose is to gain insight into substantive moral challenges at a stage in human history when G-d was shaping relationships with human, and vice versa. The use of first person language in the fiction is deliberate and hopefully evocative and historically, culturally and situationally accurate. The four moral reasoning and decision-making questions address the Biblical leaders we know as Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses.
The biblical Adam’s moral quandaries offer us a framework for G-d’s relationship with mankind— before there are Jews, Christians or Moslems. They help us understand not only the story of human identity, but also a framework for later religious practice. But, and this is important, they are questions of mankind before there was an Israelite nation or a Jew. |
Noah Fiction:
The Second Covenant
The Birth of Moral Reasoning
Digital File |
2016
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now
|
DESCRIPTION: This study series is one of four dealing with the moral questions facing Biblical personages. Its purpose is to gain insight into substantive moral challenges at a stage in human history when G-d was shaping relationships with human, and vice versa. The use of first person language in the fiction is deliberate and hopefully evocative and historically, culturally and situationally accurate. The four moral reasoning and decision-making questions address the Biblical leaders we know as Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses.
“Will you help me destroy a wicked world?” That was the implicit question The Ancestral One asked of Noah. In response, with his affirmative response, Noah was being asked to construct a great ark, to build a sanctuary for a very few living beings, as The One was going to send a great flood to drown an evil world. |
Abraham Fiction:
The Third Divine Covenant
The Birth of Moral Reasoning
Digital File |
2016
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now
|
DESCRIPTION: This study series is one of four dealing with the moral questions facing Biblical personages. Its purpose is to gain insight into substantive moral challenges at a stage in human history when G-d was shaping relationships with human, and vice versa. The use of first person language in the fiction is deliberate and hopefully evocative and historically, culturally and situationally accurate. The four moral reasoning and decision-making questions address the Biblical leaders we know as Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses.
Our most cherished sacred texts are based upon questions. Not only is the Talmud known for its interrogative and argumentative style, but even the Bible is at heart a questioning text, exploring life’s meaning and mystery.
The first biblical questions offer us a framework for understanding not only the story of human identity, but also Jewish identity. Where are you? Where is your brother? Will you help me destroy the wicked world? Will you seek Me out, and covenant with Me? This is the fourth question in the Bible. The question is implicit. |
Moses Fiction:
The Fourth Divine Covenant
The Birth of Moral Reasoning
Digital File |
2016
Price: USD $5.00
Forthcoming |
DESCRIPTION: This study series is one of four dealing with the moral questions facing Biblical personages. Its purpose is to gain insight into substantive moral challenges at a stage in human history when G-d was shaping relationships with human, and vice versa. The use of first person language in the fiction is deliberate and hopefully evocative and historically, culturally and situationally accurate. The four moral reasoning and decision-making questions address the Biblical leaders we know as Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses.
The covenant with Moses is the Torah—the full range of religious obligations and spiritual privileges witnessed by hundreds of thousands at Mt Sinai, and incumbent upon Jews thereafter by virtue of their birth into the children of Israel.
The yoke was chosen by the descendants of Israel, with many other peoples establishing credos which took this fundamental beginning and truth, and then built upon it their own religious scaffolding. |
Educator’s Resource Kit: Generational Covenant Tables
The Birth of Moral Reasoning
Digital File |
2016
Price: USD $20.00
Available Now
|
DESCRIPTION: These generational covenant tables are teaching materials used to structure or provoke discussion among students about the changing nature of pre-Rabbinic Judaism. They should be used as source material for and read in reference to the Birth of Moral Reasoning text from NitkinLiterary.
Includes Bibliography. |
Book of Job:
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
Digital File |
2016
Price: USD $5.00
Available Now
|
DESCRIPTION: We have evidence in life of so much evil that is seemingly pointless and of such horrendous intensity. Moreover, religion is sometimes been used to justify war against the "other" or the non-believer. This reflection looks to philosophers and moral reasoning for answer about why a good and powerful God would allow the amount and kinds of evil which we see around us. These issues are of an extremely important nature--not only as we seek to defend our belief in God, but also as we live out our spiritual lives. |
Job: Wrestling with G-d
Digital File |
2016
Price: USD $5.00
Forthcoming
|
DESCRIPTION: Coming Soon |
