Heart of Torah, Volume 1

Rabbi Shai Held is president, dean, and chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar and directs its Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas in New York City. He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence and a recipient of the Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg is one of the preeminent Jewish thinkers of our time.

“The Heart of Torah is a stunning achievement: textually learned, theologically profound, ethically challenging, spiritually uplifting, and psychologically astute. If you want to know what it can mean to read the Torah today with your whole heart and your whole mind, read this book.”-Rabbi Sharon Brous, founder and senior rabbi at Ikar, Los Angeles “Shai Held deftly brings the wisdom of Torah to bear upon the contemporary human condition. Christians who read this book can discover fresh dimensions within the biblical text, see more clearly where there is common ground between Jews and Christians, and better grasp what it means to understand and live in this world as God’s world.”-Walter Moberly, professor of theology and biblical interpretation at Durham University “Shai Held is one of the most important teachers of Torah in his generation.”-Rabbi David Wolpe, author of David: The Divided Heart

• ForewordAcknowledgmentsA Note on TranslationsIntroductionGenesisBere’shit No. 1. What Can Human Beings Do, and What Can’t They? Or, Does the Torah Believe in Progress?Bere’shit No. 2. Created in God’s Image: Ruling for GodNoaḥ No. 1. Before and After the Flood: Or, It All Depends on How You LookNoaḥ No. 2. People Have Names: The Torah’s Takedown of TotalitarianismLekh Lekha No. 1. Are Jews Always the Victims?Lekh Lekha No. 2. Between Abram and Lot: Wealth and Family StrifeVa-yera’ No. 1. The Face of Guests as the Face of God: Abraham’s Radical and Traditional TheologyVa-yera’ No. 2. In Praise of Protest: Or, Who’s Teaching Whom?Ḥayyei Sarah No. 1. Isaac’s Search: On the Akedah and Its AftermathḤayyei Sarah No. 2. People Are Complicated: Or, Sensitivity Is a Dangerous ThingToledot No. 1. In Praise of Isaac: The Bible’s Paragon of Marital EmpathyToledot No. 2. Between God and Torah: Judaism’s GambleVa-yetse’ No. 1. Can We Be Grateful and Disappointed at the Same Time? Or, What Leah LearnedVa-yetse’ No. 2. No Excuses: Jacob’s Sin and Its ConsequencesVa-yishlaḥ No. 1. The Fear of Killing: Jacob’s Ethical LegacyVa-yishlaḥ No. 2. The Power of Compassion: Or, Why Rachel’s Cries Pierce the HeavensVa-yeshev No. 1. Against HalfheartednessVa-yeshev No. 2. Election and Service: What Joseph LearnedMikkets No. 1. His Brother’s Brother: Judah’s JourneyMikkets No. 2. Reuben’s Recklessness: What Disqualifies a Leader?Va-yiggash No. 1. Humiliation: Judaism’s Fourth Cardinal Sin?Va-yiggash No. 2. Saving and Enslaving: The Complexity of JosephVa-yeḥi No. 1. The Majesty of Restraint: Or, Joseph’s Shining MomentVa-yeḥi No. 2. Underreacting and Overreacting: Dinah’s Family in CrisisExodusShemot No. 1. Why Moses? Or, What Makes a Leader?Shemot No. 2. Gratitude and LiberationVa-’era’ No. 1. The Journey and the (Elusive) DestinationVa-’era’ No. 2. Cultivating Freedom: When Is Character (Not) Destiny?Bo’ No. 1. Pharaoh: Consumed by the Chaos He SowsBo’ No. 2. Receiving Gifts (and Learning to Love?): The “Stripping” of the EgyptiansBe-shallaḥ No. 1. Leaving Slavery Behind: On Taking the First StepBe-shallaḥ No. 2. Bread from the Sky: Learning to TrustYitro No. 1. Does Everyone Hate the Jews? And, Is There Wisdom Outside of Torah?Yitro No. 2. Honoring Parents: (Sometimes) the Hardest Mitzvah of AllMishpatim No. 1. Turning Memory into Empathy: The Torah’s Ethical ChargeMishpatim No. 2. Hearing the Cries of the Defenseless: Or, We Are All ResponsibleTerumah No. 1. Being Present While Making Space: Or, Two Meanings of TzimtzumTerumah No. 2. Returning to Eden? An Island of Wholeness in a Fractured WorldTetsavveh No. 1. God in the Mishkan: Present but Not DomesticatedTetsavveh No. 2. Between Ecstasy and Constancy: The Dynamics of Covenantal CommitmentKi Tissa’ No. 1. The Importance of Character: Or, Why Stubbornness Is Worse Than IdolatryKi Tissa’ No. 2. God’s Expansive Mercy: Moses’s Praise and Jonah’s FuryVa-yak’hel No. 1. Whom Do We Serve? The Exodus toward Dignified WorkVa-yak’hel No. 2, Pekudei No. 1. (A) Building with HeartPekudei No. 2. Building a Home for GodNotes on GenesisNotes on ExodusA Note on Bible CommentariesBibliographySubject IndexClassical Sources Index