Torah for an Interconnected and Changing World

See discussion in, Michael Segal, “Shavuot: The Festival of Covenants,” TheTorah (2014).

See discussion on, Zev Farber, “In What Way Is Shavuot Zman Matan Torateinu?” TheTorah (2015).

See discussion in my, “Shavuot: How the Festival of Harvest Grew,” TheTorah (2014).

For a discussion of how the mourning customs developed, see Daniel Sperber, “מנהגי אבילות בתקופת ספירת העומר” [Customs of Mourning in the Period of the Counting of the Omer], in idem, מנהגי ישראל: מקורות ותולדות [Jewish Customs: Sources and History] (Jerusalem: Mosad HaRav Kook, 1990) 1.101–111.

On Shavuot, as I celebrate the grain harvest of the Land of Israel, my attention is drawn to the global problems of habitat loss, deforestation and soil erosion. The biblical association of Shavuot with harvest is now more significant than ever; it acquires a new dimension encapsulated, if unwittingly, in the determination precisely at this time of the leaders of both the United States and China to work together, despite their differences, to reverse climate change.

For the difference between yeshivah style and academic learning, see Samuel Heilman, “Lernen, Davenen, and Identifying Orthodox,” TheTorah (2018); Zev Farber, “Traditional Torah Study Versus Scientific Analysis,” TheTorah (2018).

I discuss this problem in greater depth in my, “Relating Truthfully to Morally Problematic Texts,” TheTorah (2017).