Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

Parashat Mishpatim 2018 Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Mezuzah written by Rabbi/Soferet Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli Do We Trust The Torah? Can you think of a moment in your life when you decided to trust the Jewish tradition? Sharing a personal perspective, I can cast my mind back to a moment when I was asked to trust a sacred and transformative moment. It was during my conversion ceremony. Prior to my immersion, I was asked by my sponsoring rabbi the following, to which I was called to reply. ‘Have you come here of your own free will?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Do you pledge allegiance to the God of Israel?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you pledge allegiance to the Torah of Israel?’ ‘Yes’. ‘And do you pledge allegiance to the People of Israel?’ ‘Yes.’ Answering yes to that triad of questions was emotionally powerful in a way that transcended the legal underpinnings of the procedure (even sharing it now still moves me). Of course, establishing informed consent was a legally binding and necessar...

Parashat Yitro 2018 Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz What happened at Sinai stays at Sinai? What happened at Sinai? It depends who you ask, of course. The Biblical literalist will recount the Exodus account, word-for-word, and rely on its unwavering testimony. From aleph to tav, every word is given ‘mi’Sinai’, from Sinai, and although Scripture is to be interpreted, explained and examined, its ultimate Divine authority and authorship is not to be challenged. Then there is the militant secularist’s position. The Bible, a mere collection of sloppily edited Bronze Age myths, outdated and outmoded, with little relevance to our contemporary lives. In the words of Richard Dawkins, renown biologist and passionate atheist evangelist: “Much of the Bible is… just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists...