A Digression on Hebrew Poetry — Yehuda HaLevy and the Golden Age — Bill Peter's brief appreciation of medieval Hebrew poetry posted to net.religion.jewish, May 1985, including a poem by Yehuda HaLevy in Hebrew and English translation, an analysis of its wordplay on the root *shesh*, and an introduction to the poets of the Andalusian Golden Age.
B'nai Or — A Yom Kippur in the Jewish Renewal Movement — Fran Silbiger's 1985 account of a B'nai Or Yom Kippur service — a primary source document of the early Jewish Renewal movement, showing how Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's community adapted the High Holiday liturgy to emphasize intention over form, gender inclusion, and communal psychodrama.
Chanukah — Nature, Miracle, and the Light of Torah — Pinchus Klahr (NYU, 1985) explores the two miracles of Chanukah — military and ritual — and their deeper unity: the oil miracle reveals that nature itself is miraculous, that G-d's hand is hidden in the daily wonders we call natural, and that the Hellenistic challenge to Torah was ultimately a challenge about whether any higher order governs human life.
Chanukah — The Miracle Within Nature — A scholarly essay on the theology of Chanukah: the Maccabean military victory, the miracle of the oil, and the dialectic between miracle and nature — Torah values as the answer to Hellenistic secularism. Posted to net.religion.jewish, December 1985.
Community and Prayer — Love Your Fellow as Yourself — A Sephardic siddur's teaching on 'Love your fellow as yourself' as the foundation of communal prayer, translated and presented by Joaquim Martillo in 1984.
D'var Torah — Parashat Nitzavim — Ephraim Silverberg's 1985 essay on Parashat Nitzavim: the unity of the Jewish people at Moshe's final assembly, and a Rosh Hashana address from an Israeli army base on the true meanings of Teshuvah, Tfilah, and Tzedakah.
D'var Torah — Parashat Re'e — Blessing, Curse, and the Month of Elul — Avi Feldblum at AT&T Engineering Research Center offers a D'var Torah for Parashat Re'e: the Malbim on cosmic consequences, the Sifre's parable of two roads, and halachic tidbits on Hadash and the divine name. August 1985.
D'var Torah — Parashat Shmini — The Balance of Ratzo and Shov — A Chabad-based Dvar Torah on the death of Nadav and Avihu: why spiritual ecstasy without grounded action is incomplete, and what the balance of 'drawing near' and 'drawing back' means for Jewish practice.
D'var Torah — Parashat Toldos — Orthodox Torah commentary on Parashat Toldos: Rivkah's pregnancy, the word ledrosh, the Gra's interpretation of the word 'et,' and Shimon Ha'amusi's problem resolved by Rabbi Akiva. Posted to net.religion.jewish, November 1985.
D'var Torah — Parashat Va'etchanan — The Shema as Witness — Avi Feldblum's Torah commentary on the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), exploring the enlarged letters that spell 'witness,' and interpretations by Rashi, Klai Yakar, and Ketav Sofer on the dual promise of persecution and redemption embedded in a single verse.
D'var Torah — Parashat Vayakhel — A Question of Kavanah — Asher Meth of NYU on Parashat Vayakhel: the sin of the princes who waited for others to donate to the Mishkan first, and the question of kavanah — purity of intent. Drawing on Rashi, Rabbi Chavel, the Midrash Bamidbar Rabbah, Avos Derabi Nasan, and the Beis HaLevi, Meth argues that good intentions with faulty calculations still constitute laziness in the fulfillment of a mitzvah. Posted to net.religion.jewish, March 1986.
D'var Torah — Parashat Vayetzeh — The Ladder — Torah commentary on Jacob's Ladder: gematria analysis showing that the ladder (sulam = 136) equals fasting, prayer, and charity — the three rungs of divine service. Posted from the Technion, November 1985.
D'var Torah — Parshas Shoftim — Pinchus Klahr's 1985 essay on the closing laws of Parshas Shoftim: the prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing trees (Bal Tashchis) and the broken-necked calf ceremony (Egla Arufa), linked by the teaching that Man is the tree of the field.
D'var Torah — Parshat Bereshit — Black Fire, White Fire, and the Unbroken Chain — Avi Feldblum's 1985 D'var Torah on Parshat Bereshit — the Ramban's introduction to the Torah, the image of Moses copying from letters of black fire on white fire, and what the Menachot 29b story of Moses in Rabbi Akiba's classroom teaches about tradition and humility.
D'var Torah — Parshat Haazinu — When Yeshurun Grew Fat — Azriel Heuman's 1985 D'var Torah on the Song of Haazinu — how Moses structured his final rebuke as a six-part mirror of Jewish history, and what three Hebrew words (VAYISHMAN YESHURUN VAYIVAT) capture about the recurring pattern of spiritual decline in prosperity.
D'var Torah — Parshat Ki Sisa — The Weapons of Sinai and the Sin of Standing Aside — Dovid Chechik of AT&T Holmdel on Parashas Ki Sisa: why the Jews were punished for the golden calf not because most worshiped it, but because they failed to stop those who did. The weapons and crowns given at Sinai — promised at the end of his Parshat Mishpatim post — are the edyam stripped away at the Aygel. Posted to net.religion.jewish, February 1986.
D'var Torah — Parshat Mishpatim — Na'ase V'Nishma and the Two Crowns of Torah — Dovid Chechik of AT&T Holmdel on the famous 'na'ase v'nishma' moment at Sinai: why the Jews pledged to do before they heard, the Bais Halevi's teaching on the two purposes of Torah study, and why the First Temple fell to scholars who did not learn lishma. Posted to net.religion.jewish, February 1986.
D'var Torah — Parshat Noach — The Offspring of the Righteous — Michael Schneider's 1985 D'var Torah on Parshat Noach — what TOLDOT (offspring) really means when applied to Noach, two readings of 'perfect in his generations,' and the contrast between Noach who walked *with* G-d and Abraham who walked *before* G-d.
D'var Torah — Parshat Teruma — The Tabernacle as Cure Before the Disease — Azriel Heuman of AT&T Bell Labs Holmdel on why the Torah presents the laws of the Tabernacle before the Golden Calf: five rabbinic views, from Rashi's 'cure before the disease' to Soloveitchik's Halachic Man who brings holiness down into the concrete world. Posted to net.religion.jewish, February 1986.
D'var Torah — Parshat Vayera — The True Test of the Binding — Eliyahu Teitz's 1985 D'var Torah on the Akediah — why G-d tests someone He knows will pass, and a second reading of the binding that reframes the test entirely: not whether Avraham would kill his son, but whether he would sacrifice his life's work.
Holy Names on Disk — A Rabbi's Answer on Sacred Text in Digital Form — A 1983 halachic ruling from Rabbi David Schochet (Toronto) on whether digital storage constitutes 'writing' for purposes of the prohibition on erasing divine names, one of the earliest religious responses to the computer age.
Introduction to net.religion.jewish — A scholarly introduction to net.religion.jewish, one of the earliest online forums for Jewish religious discourse, active 1983–1987 in the original net.* hierarchy.
Memories — Jewish Life on the Grand Concourse, The Bronx, 1950s — Frederick Liss of Digital Equipment Corporation remembers the Jewish world of the Grand Concourse in the Bronx: the shoychet on his milk box, the spice shop owner who put down his siddur to serve customers, the kosher butcher with Hebrew decals, the dried fruit roasters. A firsthand portrait of an integrated Jewish commercial and spiritual neighborhood that has since dispersed. Posted to net.religion.jewish, January 1986.
On Praying for Rain in Exile — The Statutory Equinox and the Custom Without Law — Jay Shachter's meticulous halachic analysis of v'ten tal u'matar: why rain-prayer follows the solar calendar, the Sages' deliberate choice of an imprecise statutory equinox, and the sobering conclusion that diaspora communities have been following a legally baseless custom for centuries — one no medieval rabbi could correct.
Parashat Pesach — The Bread of Affliction, the Bread of Freedom — Avi Feldblum's 1985 Pesach Dvar Torah, relayed through AT&T Bell Labs. Reviews Seder obligations and laws of chametz, then turns to theology: the Dubna Maggid's parable of the peddler-turned-merchant explains how commemoration becomes reality, and the Abravanel resolves the apparent contradiction of Passover's dual themes — slavery and freedom — in a single night.
Parashat Shabbat Hagadol — The Search for Chametz and the Two Voices of Torah — Asher Schechter's 1985 Dvar Torah for Shabbat Hagadol, the Great Sabbath before Passover. A talmudic analysis of why the ritual search for chametz is required even after verbal disavowal, tracing two reasons from Tosfos to a single verse in Exodus.
Parashat Shevi'i shel Pesach — Sink or Swim — The Earned Redemption at the Red Sea — Pinchus Klahr's 1985 Dvar Torah for the last days of Passover. Drawing on the Sefas Emes (Rabbi Alter of Gur) and the Meshech Chochma, he explains why Pesach ends with a second Yom Tov, why the Jews nearly drowned before the sea split, and why we recite only partial Hallel on the seventh day.
Parashat Terumah — Name, Wealth, and Moral Courage — Baruch Sterman of AT&T Bell Labs draws a Midrash connecting Moshe, Pinchas, and Mordechai: each hero acted in moral ambiguity, sustained only by the knowledge that God understood their motives — a teaching on inner integrity over external validation, offered as a call for unity before Purim.
Parashat Vayak'hel-Pekudei — Holiness of Time, People, and Place — Avi Feldblum's 1985 Dvar Torah on the Mishkan and Shabbos — why the building of the Tabernacle does not override the Sabbath, and what the Torah's three types of holiness reveal about the relationship between action and rest.
Parshat Chukas — The Red Cow and the Freedom of the Will — A Dvar Torah on Parah Adumah: what the inscrutable law of the Red Cow teaches about moral freedom, physical determinism, and the paradox of purifying ashes that defile.
Parshat Zachor — A Dvar Torah on Amalek — Avi Feldblum's Dvar Torah for the Shabbat before Purim: why Amalek's attack was unlike any other war, what it meant to challenge God's rulership, and why the obligation to remember Amalek falls equally on all Israel — posted to net.religion.jewish in 1985.
Ritual Slaughter of the Latke — A Purim Torah — A 1984 Purim Torah essay in mock-Talmudic style on the halakhic preparation of latkes, delivered at the Latke-Homentash Debate at the University of Wisconsin.
Rosh Hashana — Some Reflections — Pinchus Klahr's brief 1985 meditation on Rosh Hashana: why the Day of Judgement is celebrated with festive meals rather than fasting, the etymology of 'head of the year,' and the meaning of Teshuvah as return rather than penance.
Secular Judaism and the Search for the Supreme Fiction — Gary Buchholz's 1985 essay on Ahad Haam's secular Judaism — the most ambitious attempt in Jewish history to reformulate Jewish identity in national-cultural categories without theological affirmation — and its philosophical conclusion that all religions are 'supreme fictions' by which human beings emplot their lives.
Stolen Software and Halakha — Intellectual Property in Jewish Law — Willis Johnson's pioneering 1985 analysis of software piracy under Jewish law, applying concepts of hasagat gevul (encroachment on boundaries), eyushi me-ish (abandonment of hope), and dina d'malkhuta dina (the law of the land) to the then-new question of digital intellectual property.
The Golem in Literature — Mark R. Leeper's 1985 survey of the Golem legend — from the Kabbalistic creation of the Prague Golem by Rabbi Judah Loew to its literary treatments in Yiddish theatre, science fiction, and horror novels.
The Lost Souls of Magic Carpet — On Assimilation, Religious Identity, and the Vessel of Peace — A November 1985 reflection by Asher Meth on the forced secularization of Sephardi and Yemenite Jews brought to Israel under Operation Magic Carpet in the early 1950s — the shorn peiyot, the Shabbat-violating work requirements, the children taken from religious homes — and what it means to lose Jewish souls not to persecution but to progress. Closes with the last Mishnah of tractate Uktzin: the only vessel for blessing is peace.
The Mathematics of the Divine Name — On Gematriya and Humility — A 1985 exploration of the numerical pattern in the Tetragrammaton — as multiples of HaShem's name grow larger, their digital root shrinks — illustrating Rabbi Yochanan's teaching that greatness and humility are inseparable.
The Rose Bush and the Treasure — On Reading the Zohar — Eliyahu Teitz's parable from net.religion.jewish, May 1985: a story about three sons and a rose bush, explaining why the rabbis encoded their deepest knowledge in the Zohar and Aggadot as stories, and why those who cannot see past the surface should not dismiss what they cannot read.
The Torah is Not in Heaven — On the Authority of the Oral Law — Eliyahu Teitz of Albert Einstein College of Medicine explains why the Talmud is as binding as the Torah: the chain of interpretation from Moses through the generations, the breaking of that chain at the Talmud's compilation, and the famous story of Rabbi Eliezer — when G-d's own heavenly voice was overruled, and G-d laughed and said, 'My children have won me.' Posted to net.religion.jewish, February 1986.
Torah and the Documentary Hypothesis — A Response from the Orthodox Tradition — A 1985 defense of Torah Judaism against the Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis, arguing that biblical higher criticism fails its own methodological standards and that the Torah tradition rests on at least as much historical evidence as the claims of academic scholarship.
Where Are the Non-Orthodox (and Why) — A 1984 reflection on non-Orthodox Jewish disengagement from education, media, and communal discourse — and the cost of walking away.
Yom Kippur & Kol Nidray — Pinchus Klahr's 1985 essay on the meaning of Kol Nidray and the five prohibitions of Yom Kippur — why the Day of Atonement begins with a vow ceremony, and why it is not a day of sadness.