Rosner’s Torah Talk: Parshat KiTisa with Rabbi Howard A. Berman

[additional-authors]

Shmuel Rosner

February 21, 2019

Rabbi Howard A. Berman is Founding Rabbi of Central Reform Temple. He is also Rabbi Emeritus of Chicago Sinai Congregation, Chicago’s historic center of liberal Reform Judaism, having served as Senior Rabbi from 1982-2002. He was born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where he received his early religious and general education. After attaining his undergraduate degree in European History from the Universities of Cincinnati and London, England, he studied for the Rabbinate at the Leo Baeck College in London, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where he received the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters and was ordained in 1974.

This Week’s Torah Portion – Parashat Ki Tisa (Exodus 30:11-34:35) – begins with the census of the people of Israel and with further instructions concerning the Tabernacle and the Shabbat. The portion then proceeds to tell the story of the Golden Calf, Moses’ plea to god, the splitting of the Tablets into two, and the giving of the second tablets. Our discussion focuses, among other things, on the role of aesthetics in religion.