Comments for Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Comment on Book Review — Very Near to You: Human Readings of the Torah by admin

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:27:30 +0000

Thanks. Burg’s book is much better than Nechama Leibowitz, or Nachshoni’s expositions on the weekly sedra.

Comment on The Linguistic Constructions of Halachic Reality (Updated) by Yochanan Lavie

Yochanan Lavie — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:58:08 +0000

Good point, but common sense should be our guide. Like if you stay in a hotel with electronic locks on Shabbat, it’s better to use them than to be a shut-in. But we could all use a day off from TV, the internet, and other electronic entertainments.

Comment on Book Review — Very Near to You: Human Readings of the Torah by Yochanan Lavie

Yochanan Lavie — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:55:53 +0000

A wonderful review! I should add it to my wish list.

Comment on The Linguistic Constructions of Halachic Reality (Updated) by admin

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:42:52 +0000

I think a ban on technology is probably a safer way to go, but what about forks and knives? Should we go back to the days when we used out-houses?

Something to think about . . .

Comment on Honor Killings 1/2 by Yochanan Lavie

Yochanan Lavie — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:16:10 +0000

You could have mentioned the chareidi burqa women, soon to be the norm, I’m sure.

Comment on The Linguistic Constructions of Halachic Reality (Updated) by Yochanan Lavie

Yochanan Lavie — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:11:07 +0000

The best argument against using electricity on Shabbat is that it is not “shabbosdig” and would make Shabbat like a weekday.

Comment on Identifying Nimrod in the Bible by Yochanan Lavie

Yochanan Lavie — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:08:01 +0000

It is ironic that in colloquial speech “Nimrod” has come to mean “idiot.”

Comment on Honor Killings in Antiquity (2/2) by Shoshi

Shoshi — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:42:06 +0000

Hi, Rabbi Samuel. I appreciate your post about honor killings.

However, I don’t think I would describe Yehuda as ethically challenged. As you imply in your article, he was working within his cultural milieu in calling for Tamar’s execution, and ethics has to do with operating within societal norms.

When she produced the proof that she was innocent, he copped to his part in the situation right away. If he were ethically challenged, I think he would have come up with some cover story, like that she had stolen his things. Or even blame her for her trickery. Of course, it is possible that there was no stigma whatsoever in his having availed himself of a prostitute, so that it was not at all embarrassing for him to admit she was telling the truth about that. But it must have been problematic for him to recognize publicly that she had to stoop to these measures because he had refused to do the right thing concerning the yibbum.

So perhaps Yehuda did display a lack of ethics when it came to withholding his next-in-line son from marrying her and giving her first husband heirs. But if he really thought she was responsible for the deaths of the others, who can blame him for wanting to protect this one? I guess the moral is that we should follow the law, not our fears?

Comment on Did King David Really Sin with Bathsheba? by admin

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:48:52 +0000

That is true!

Comment on Did King David Really Sin with Bathsheba? by Yochanan Lavie

Yochanan Lavie — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:45:24 +0000

Abravenel cast a colder eye on monarchy, more so than most rabbis, because of his position in the Spanish court and his witness of the abuse of power.