The Great Sources with Rabbi Shnayor Burton Rabbi Shnayor Burton

"Exodus, Exile and Redemption" is a study of the profound significance of Judaism's history.
Written essays are published bi-weekly here:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shnayor.substack.com/s/from-exodus-to-exile-to-redemption
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Please subscribe!
This series is a project of the Jacob Lights Foundation. To support this and other ongoing projects of the foundation, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to the Substack newsletter or making a donation via Zelle to jacoblightsfoundation@gmail.com.

0:00 Q: Is the Messiah something we generate or something that happens to us?

4:00 What the Messiah will do and how he will do it

7:15 Why do we study Torah these days if we don't truly have the Torah in exile?

8:30 What is the Torah about?

11:00 Why the Torah doesn't work outside of Eretz Yisrael

13:15 The most burning question is: "What is the Torah about?," i.e. "What is da'as Hashem?"

18:00 How can the Torah assert that man is in the image of God if people kill each other?

20:00 Are there fundamentally unbridgeable differences between human beings?

22:45 The Torah doesn't reveal truths as much as it gives a vision of what can be

24:45 Torah as a radical document suggesting what can be

26:45 In order to understand the Torah, we have to view it within a historical lens as well
28:45 We can't tell people they don't have Torah

31:45 Not everyone could be Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi who lived in the past and the future

36:00 Why there developed a concept of the Redemption as something that will happen to us miraculously

40:30 In the past, there was no way to talk about Redemption without using miraculous terminology

43:00 Why people believe in being passive; the great danger of hastening the End before its time45:15 Whether the world is ready for something depends on whether we are ready for it

47:00 Those who have no understanding of Redemption should indeed do nothing about it

50:30 Summary

This lecture is a project of the Jacob Lights Foundation

4:50 Getting angry is akin to idolatry
6:00 Why is Judaism's vision so challenging to achieve?
7:00 God's unity is approached through 3 pathways, represented by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
11:00 The problem of evil is the reason that humans can't weave all of being around one good principle
13:10 Isaac represents the problem of evil
15:40 Why would God tell Abraham to slaughter Isaac?
19:30 How can we organize our psyche around one principle given that there is both good and evil?
22:15 The great men who attempted to bring the Messiah - Yehudah and Hezekiah, sons of Rabbi Chiya
26:00 Redemption depends on Abraham, Isaac and Jacob being in harmony
27:45 The book of Malachi and its vision; the role of Elijah the Prophet in effecting a rapprochement among the forefathers
32:00 How to effect that rapprochement and solve the problem of evil
33:15 The problem of evil is based on taking our subjective existence as a source of value
36:00 Thinking of yourself as cause instead of effect
40:00 Sacrificial worship is nihilistic, until Malachi reinterpreted it
47:00 Sh'ma and Hashem as our father
51:15 How we can achieve the Jewish vision


This lecture is a project of the Jacob Lights Foundation

"Exodus, Exile and Redemption" is a study of the profound significance of Judaism's history.
Written essays are published bi-weekly here:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shnayor.substack.com/s/from-exodus-to-exile-to-redemption
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Please subscribe!
This series is a project of the Jacob Lights Foundation. To support this and other ongoing projects of the foundation, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to the Substack newsletter or making a donation via Zelle to jacoblightsfoundation@gmail.com.

1:00 Sh'ma is a constant guide to our lives

3:45 The meaning of the Sh'ma according to Rashi

4:30 The meaning of there being many gods

6:30 Metaphysics is not interesting to Tanach

8:15 Whether there are many gods or only one depends on people's behavior

10:00 When you say Sh'ma, you should envision redemption and plan for it

12:00 How humanity will attain the Messianic Era and what we should do about it

14:00 Unity and love

16:45 Reaching "Hashem is one" without defining Hashem

20:00 Humanity converging on one value means they are serving Hashem; all the Torah cares about is not serving "other gods"

22:45 Not every monotheist serves Hashem; "as if" being an idolater is extremely important
27:00 The Messianic Era is not totalitarian

28:30 Human progress and reaching unity of Hashem

31:45 Everyone has a god; the god that you "as if" worship is more important for some purposes than the god that you actually worship

34:30 The unity of action achieved by a person who worships one God must apply to any potential future experiences as well, which is why you have to envision giving up your life when saying Sh'ma

38:00 The Jewish problem and the 70 ministering angels

42:00 Creation ex nihilo and disregard for the universe

45:20 Why Jews must be unlike other nations; how to effect unifications

48:30 How to manipulate history and why we need to program AI to effect Redemption

This lecture is a project of the Jacob Lights Foundation

"Exodus, Exile and Redemption" is a study of the profound significance of Judaism's history.
Written essays are published bi-weekly here:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shnayor.substack.com/s/from-exodus-to-exile-to-redemption
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Please subscribe!
This series is a project of the Jacob Lights Foundation. To support this and other ongoing projects of the foundation, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to the Substack newsletter or making a donation via Zelle to jacoblightsfoundation@gmail.com.