Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Jessie Fischbein's avatar

The question about Truman sleeping soundly is interesting. R' Mann brought up a similar question this year, after Avraham's 4 kings/5 kings situations and Hashem telling him do not be afraid. R' Mann said: If Avraham should have been afraid (of losing protection due to lowering his spiritual level), then wasn't the time to make that assessment BEFORE he did the raid?

We got into a really interesting discussion about how sometimes violence is necessary, justified, and the best choice of current options.

But that doesn't mean it doesn't take a toll on a person to do it. And grieving about loss of life *even if it was the correct and best decision* might be very appropriate AFTER the fact and does not mean to imply that the actions should not have been done.

כי לא יחפוץ במות המת כי אם בשובו מדרכו וחיה

Expand full comment
Jessie Fischbein's avatar

When I taught elementary school, I never deviated from pshat until my students were old enough to read Rashi inside and discover the midrashim themselves and see that they were not in the pesukim. My little students were always pretty enthralled by pshat. (In fact, I was consistently surprised how much first graders liked parshas Mishpatim.)

Expand full comment
3 more comments...

No posts