Jewish Values in the Torah Portion

Rabbi Amsel is the Director of Education at Rabbi Berel Wein’s Destiny Foundation, which aims to excite and entertain people with Jewish history.

He devotes each of his 54 chapters to the 54 portions Jews read weekly from the Torah each year. Rather than attempting to prove he is a scholar, which he does not need to confirm, or tell readers mystical or sermonic lessons, he devotes each chapter of generally five pages to a single fundamental Jewish value, which he examines at length insightfully.

Among the 54 values Rabbi Amsel discusses are how to live forever, whether Judaism is a culture or religion, the attitude to less observant Jews, the primacy of the Land of Israel, keeping a Jewish name, the Jewish attitude to animals, God, prophecy, lying, dreams, war, revenge, time, jealousy, holiness, birthdays, family, and antisemitism.

For example, the biblical portion Behar examines eight Jewish thoughts that prohibit making people feel bad. It gives examples from various Jewish sources, such as the biblical and talmudic commentator Rashi, born in 1040.

Rashi tells readers the lesson of Leviticus 25:17, based on the Talmud Bava Metzia 58b, that overcharging a person in a financial transaction violates the Torah because it makes the person feel bad. Rashi adds that the following verse, 18, can cause bad feelings simply by the use of improper words or by teasing others.

Rashi quotes Talmud Bava Metzia 59a, which states that inflicting distress “is not just another sin, but indeed one of the most serious sins in the Torah.”

He also tells us what Nechama Leibowitz, Sefer Chasidim, Shulchan Aruch, Igeret Hateshuvah, Maharal, Tosafot, and others say.

Another example is the biblical portion, Bechukotai, which focuses on retirement. He tells us that the “idea of ending one’s profession or work due to old age seems to be antithetical to Jewish thought.” The Talmud Kinim 25a states that Torah scholars’ minds hold firm as they age, and the Talmud Shabbat 152a states that the brains of Jewish scholars grow stronger as they grow older. Avot d’Rabbi Natan 11 warns that old people may die if their brains are not sufficiently engaged. According to Rashi’s commentary on Genesis 37:2, the patriarch Jacob wanted to end his days in shalvah, serenity, but God told him that humans cannot live leisurely in this or even the next world.

He also discusses other views, such as how practices in the USA are not consistent and how sometimes people must retire. Still, Supreme Court Justices and government officials have no retirement age, and there are some curious historical events.

The concept of retirement, for example, where a government pays citizens who leave work because of old age or sickness, is modern.  The German statesman Otto von Bismarck, who unified Germany (1815-1898), instituted the system in 1879. He gave the money only to people over 70 when the average age of death was under 40. Why?

Similarly, when US President Franklin D. Roosevelt started the Social Security system in 1935 to pay workers when they reached age 65, the average age of death in the USA was fifty-nine. What was he thinking?

The unusual examples of Bismarck and Roosevelt aside, it appears that there is no universal rule about retirement; ideas change regarding it, but generally speaking, but not always, there is no mandatory requirement to retire today in Judaism—just the opposite.

In short, Rabbi Amsel’s book is excellent. It teaches values, informs readers of lots of new information, and entertains them.

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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and is the author of more than 50 books.