Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf

The Minyan Market

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts

Redeeming Relevance: Achashverosh and the Evil of Neutrality

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

When it came to the “Jewish question,” Achashverosh seemed to be completely neutral. So how could he be as bad as the man who destroyed the Temple?

Anger, Procrastination, and Elul

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Some people get angry at the Jewish calendar. It takes away their ability to decide when they want to rejoice, when they want to...

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Behaalotecha: Just Trying to Improve Things

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

In this week's parsha, there is an unusually insightful process of how a little complaint can undermine a gigantic and noble enterprise:

Rosenzweig and Weil are Dead

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

To understand why we don't see people like these anymore, it is worth pointing out that Rosenzweig and especially Weil could be described as “Renaissance men.”

Redeeming Relevance: Moshe’s Speech to Jews Living Today

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

While Moshe saw all the Jews as one whole, it was the ones in front of him who served as the representatives for all those who had lived and would live in the future.

Redeeming Relevance: Vayikra Avoidance Syndrome and the Torah on One Foot

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Because sefer Vayikra is more difficult, we tend to look at it less. But because we look at it less, we also understand it less, which – in turn – keeps it difficult and less appealing. In a nutshell, that is what I call Vayikra Avoidance Syndrome.

The Subversive Jewish Wisdom Aristotle Would Not Hear

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

While I respect many of the moral accomplishments of the West, I believe that Judaism still has much to offer in critique of the West’s many remaining failings.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Nasso: Sotah and the Metaphor of Monogamy

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to suggest that the whole reason God created man, male and female, was for us to better understand our relationship with Him.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Toldot: Switching the Land On and Off

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Being bound on Mount Moriah gave Yitzchak a connection with God that would be disturbed by living outside the Land of Israel.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Korach: The Dangers of Delusion

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Dr. Gidon Rothstein

We assume we know as well as our leaders less because they have failed to prove themselves or have shown deficiencies than because of our attachment to seeing ourselves a certain way. And, as was true of Korach and his group, we do so to our detriment.

Guns Kill People AND People Kill People; American and Gilead

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

One of the more fruitless political debates in the United States is whether strict restriction of gun permits would add to public safety. One of the reasons it is fruitless is that both sides muster flawed analogies to other societies.

Redeeming Relevance: What’s with the Blood on the Doorposts?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

It seems very likely that when the Jews put the blood on the doorposts, it was meant as a strong statement of protest against Egypt and about the holiness of life. In other words, whereas the Egyptians made even human life a commodity, the Jews were bidden to sanctify the essence of life even in animals.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Vayechi: Like Reuven and Shimon?!?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Ya’akov’s mistake instructs us to understand that even if something appears to be good, that does not mean there isn’t a different way that might be even better

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Nitzavim: The Secrets of God’s Plan B

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Can God justifiably blame us for something we don’t know?

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Re’eh: How to See God in the World

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Whether in its variation or in its norms, the world around us provides countless ways to see God. But that will only happen to someone who is looking for them. In other words if we really want to see God, we must also seek God.

Redeeming Relevance: What was so Bad about Ya’akov’s Life?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

If Ya’akov’s words to Pharaoh were just an exercise in self-mortification about what was too late to change, there would be little to learn from them. But if, as is more likely, they represented part of a strategy of how to continue improving, there is actually a great deal we can learn from them.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Tzav: The Temple’s Sophistication and the Chumrot of Pesach

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Although there is a strong basis for our propensity to be more stringent on Pesach than we are during the rest of the year, we should not turn that into a blanket attitude in which stringency is always followed, regardless of the other values at stake

Redeeming Relevance: Rosh Hashanah: What was Avraham Supposed to do for an Encore?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

No matter how hard we work on ourselves, we can never be totally prepared for the challenges ahead. And that is actually a good thing. Not only would life be less interesting, but a great deal of its meaning would otherwise be taken away. As Rebbe Nachman said, “If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what need have you for a tomorrow?”

When Silence is NOT Golden

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Being a real hero is not just about what we do, it is also about when we do it.

Redeeming Relvance: Parshat Mikets: The Man who Could no Longer Tell a Lie

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

How Yehudah Turned Bnai Ya’akov into Bnai Yisrael

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Behar: The Plea of a Forsaken Mitzvah

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Since the commandments are all meant to engender some positive effect; when a commandment is not practiced, that effect will not be attained either.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Shemini: Why there is NO Problem with Collective Punishment

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

--and Why We Avoid it Nonetheless

Redeeming Relevance: Esav: The Off the Derekh Patriarch

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Rav Hirsch famously criticizes Yitzchak and Rivkah for not educating Esav according to his innate personality, and instead trying to force him to be like Ya’akov. His insight is meant to teach that while it was Esav that made the choice to go ‘off the derekh,’ there is always much that parents can try to do before that happens.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Pinchas: Are We All Sinners?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

In Judaism, since sin is not a foregone conclusion, we hold ourselves fully accountable for it. Likewise do we hold others accountable – if not to us, then certainly to God. And so the daughters of Tzelophad put this out about their father – and about everyone else.