Student Teaching in the New Millenium

5771 Pesach I

In General on April 19, 2011 at 3:06 am

Why didn’t the parents circumcise the children in the wilderness?

Why is it taken for granted that the children in Joshua are free of the prejudices of the parents?

They would not see the Promised Land. Why did the tribe stay together in the wilderness for forty years?

Why did God have to roll away the disgrace of Egypt? Isn’t that what he was doing for forty years?

Did the Israelites continue to worship foreign gods in the wilderness?

What does it mean to not have an opinion? If such a person performs an act, is it a true act? Or an action? Is it enough to perform an act without asking the question first?

  1. John Steinbeck wrote that every generation like to imagine they invented sin. We imagine our generation a s the most marginal and assimilated ever. So this message for Rabbi’s: Give sermons on the struggle with ritual from the beginning. So teaches the Ashlamta of Passover! Imagine, that generation not circumscised.

    • Is that why so much of the Passover reading is dedicated to ritual and observance?

      A people uncircumcised and a non-people circumcised. Is this possible? Which is desirable?

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