Fwd: neighbor and stranger; Menachot 29b

[David Seidenberg]

Hi Chevra,

This week we get the Torah's first great verse about protecting the stranger (Exodus 22:20). neohasid.org has a set of text sheets with every single instance where the stranger is mentioned in Tanakh (which is btw many more than 36 times). Here's a link to the page where you can download the pdf:

https://neohasid.org/torah/lovingthestranger/



Also, this past week of daf yomi (the page-a-day Talmud study project/community) covered Menachot 29, which includes the famous story of Moshe asking God why God doesn't give the Torah through the hand of Akiva. God says, "Shut up!", Moshe says, "show me his reward", and his shows him Akiva's flesh being weighed to be sold in the marketplace. I have a paper from some years back on this aggadah that deconstructs rabbinic theodicy. If it's a story that fascinates you, you might enjoy it. Here's a link to "Akiva's Crown of Thorns": 

https://www.academia.edu/164594492/Akivas_Crown_of_Thorns_Divine_Violence_and_the_Inversion_of_Rabbinic_Theodicy

Wishing everyone a sweet shabbat,

David Seidenberg