Category: basics

Capital punishment and garment fringes. These topics bump against each other in this week’s Torah portion. And the juxtaposition prompts reflection: How do the corners of a garment relate to incarceration and execution? Does grappling with one of the heaviest of issues for our society outweigh other pressing concerns? Amid a constant stream of urgent death penalty crises, where do day-to-day activities and obligations fit? How might these apparently disparate topics inform one another?

This week’s portion is Shelach (Numbers 13:1 – 15:41). It’s an eventful section, full of conflict and disaster, death and the promise of more death-as-punishment to come. The portion concludes with instructions regarding ritual fringes (Num 15:37-41) which comprise the third paragraph of the Shema recitation in most traditions. Immediately prior to that is an incident involving citizens’ arrest, followed by detention and execution, ordered by God and implemented by the entire community (Num 15:32-36). (Verses below)

A lot of teaching over the centuries addresses connections between the law violation in Num 15:32 and the adjacent commandment to wear fringes, tzitzit. One thread of commentary treats tzitzit as a reminder of all the commandments, including Shabbat; the suggestion is that tzitzit can help avoid another violation, like that reported in 15:32. Here, I suggest using the tzitzit for a different reminder.

Keep Them in Mind

The current month of Sivan 5785 / June 2025 is set to include six executions in the US with more ahead. We have already lost 23 individuals to execution in 2025 (29 in the Jewish year of 5785). Meanwhile:

• Some of us go about our daily lives without much attention to capital punishment happening in our names and with our tax dollars;
• Some of us are concerned about specific cases and/or the death penalty itself; we sign petitions, lobby officials, engage in related prayer and protest;
• Some of us, inside or outside, are deeply affected by relationships with those on Death Row and/or victims of capital crimes;
• And some of us are on Death Row, regularly experiencing dehumanizing treatment, watching fellows separated for Death Watch and mourning for those executed — often very different individuals from those convicted decades earlier.

We might shift between “some” categories over time or live within more than one. And, just in case the idea that “some of us are on Death Row” seems odd to you, please consider: If you are reading this, you are at least vaguely connected to me (Virginia Avniel Spatz), and that means you two degrees of separation from a Jew on Death Row and another degree away from many others. As with all things in our inequitable society, some among us can live whole lives — in some cases, generations of lives — without personally knowing someone on Death Row or serving a life sentence. But none of us is truly unconnected.

When gathering the four corners to recite the Shema — or at another time that works in our practice — we can hold these “some” categories, within our communities and/or within ourselves, together for a few moments.

Tied Together

As an aid to considering how we are all connected, I share “Tied Together: A meditation on fringes, whom we center, and communal work ahead” (PDF: Tied Together). This meditation focuses on carcerality more generally, rather than on the death penalty specifically. It also suggests categories of vision that might transform our current system.

Alt text: picture of tallit, folded to show four fringes, labeled: asurim [bound] + l’yad [adjacent] + bachutz [outside] + lo nikhla [not impacted]; 317+44+106+132= 599; see PDF for more on graphic and meditation.

This post is concerned primarily with shifting some Jewish awareness toward those most immediately affected by the death penalty in the US. Those interested can learn about ways to get involved here: Death Row and Everyday Torture, general links re: Death Penalty and L’Chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty and Matir Asurim.

To aid, perhaps, in connecting, a few words from my chevruta, Ronald W. Clark, Jr., on Florida’s Death Row:

[Anthony Wainwright] was talking about how good the other burrito was, so I gave him mine. We were talking at the time his warrant was signed, it was 3:54 pm when the front door popped and Wainwright said, they just signed my warrant. I said no! I stuck my mirror out and sure enough there they all are coming down. When they got down here in front of his cell Wainwright said, I already know. Can I take my tablet?* They told him you can take your address book. He had been so stressed out since I got up here. I had heard about it before I even moved up here, guys were telling me at rec that he was stressed out thinking his warrant would be signed. When I got up here, I actually got to see it first hand. That brother couldn’t get it off his mind. Guys up here thought he was paranoid. But I knew from talking to him that he had a legitimate concern.

…Then Friday they signed Michael Bell’s death warrant. They have him scheduled for July 15th. I know him as well. Tommy [Thomas Lee Gudinas] has nine days to live. This Governor is trying to stack the bodies up to walk his self into the Whitehouse. Rick Scott murdered 28 men to get into the U.S. Senate, DeSantis feels that if he out does Scott he will get the Presidency. And he’s on pace to shatter that with two executions a month.
— Ronald W. Clark, Jr., UCI Florida
private correspondence, [May 16 and June 16, 2025) shared with permission

*When a death warrant is signed, the individual is taken from Death Row to “Death Watch,” where their connections are lost to others inside and to those outside, through their electronic tablets.

In closing, may this week’s Torah reading serve as reminder that our obligations extend to all of our community, incarcerated or not, on Death Row or not.

Numbers 15:32-41

Everett Fox (Schocken, 1995) translation, adapted with the more common “YHVH” for Fox’s “YHWH” and including a few phrases from the Hebrew. Visit Sefaria for full text and other translations:

15:32: Now when the Children of Israel were in the wilderness,
they found a man picking wood on the Sabbath day.

33: They brought him near, those who found him picking wood,
to Moshe and to Aharon, and to the entire community;

34: they put him under guard [va’yanichu oto bamish’mar, וַיַּנִּיחוּ אֹתוֹ בַּמִּשְׁמָר]
for it had not been clarified what should be done to him.

35: YHVH said to Moshe:
The man is to be put to death, yes, death;
pelt him with stones, the entire community, outside the camp!

36: So they brought him, the entire community, outside the camp,
and they pelted him with stones, so that he died,
as YHVH had commanded Moshe.

37: YHVH said to Moshe, saying:

38: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them
that they are to make themselves tassels [tzitzit, צִיצִת]
on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations,
and are to put on the corner tassel a thread of blue-violet [tekhelet, תְּכֵלֶת].

39: It shall be a tassel for you,
that you may look at it [u-r’item oto, וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ ]
and keep-in-mind [u-z’khartem, וּזְכַרְתֶּם ] all the commandments of YHVH
and observe them,
that you not go scouting-around after your heart, after your eyes
which you go whoring after;

40: in order that you may keep-in-mind [l’ma’an tizk’ru, לְמַעַן תִּזְכְּרוּ ]
and observe all my commandments, [va’asitem et-kol-mitzvotai, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֶת־כׇּל־מִצְוֺתָי]
and [so] be holy to your God! [vi’hayitem kedoshim le’loheikhem, וִהְיִיתֶם קְדֹשִׁים לֵאלֹהֵיכֶם]

41: I am YHVH your God,
who took you out of the land of Egypt, to be a God to you;
I am YHVH your God!

Guard / Imprison

The Hebrew in Num 15:34 uses the expression “put him under guard [va’yanichu oto bamish’mar].” The Aramaic translation uses the verb “אֲסוּרִים, asurim [imprisoned].” This is the same Aramaic verb used in Num 11:28, where Joshua calls on Moshe to restrain (or detain or contain) Eldad and Medad, using a different expression: “כְּלָאֵם, k’la’eim.” Verse 11:28 is one of the rare uses in the Torah of the root kaf-lamed-alef — the root of “carceral,” “prison,” and related words in modern Hebrew.

Rabbi Ammi taught that violent robbery — taking by force or more general oppression — upset the universe to the point of interfering with the most basic of divine blessings. I found this passage (B. Talmud Taanit 7b) exploring prayers for Shemini Atzeret, at the close of Sukkot. This year, the close of Sukkot marks a full Jewish calendar year of disaster and death and grief. The still intensifying process of genocide, greed, and disregard for both humanity and international law seems too clear an example of “the sin of hands” Rabbi Ammi cites.

I began my studies on this hoping for inspiration to craft a prayer or ritual response for the terrible anniversary coming. At this point, I can only share the sources I’ve explored.

Rabbi Ammi tells us “rain is withheld only due to the sin of gezel [robbery, wrong, oppression].” He uses a form of scriptural reasoning that links words and images in one verse to those in another, with each image a powerful one worth considering:

• our hands, engaging in acts of violence and appropriating of others’ resources;
• God’s hands, holding lightning or covering light;
• God spreading out light, which is linked to Torah and to rain;
• God filling dark clouds with moisture and emptying them as rain.
• identification of prayer and pleading as “remedy” for what ails us and the world.

The last link in the chain of verses is a statement that “remedy” is increased prayer, brought to us through an odd conclusion to the scriptural tour: “prayer [t’fillah]” and “pleading [pegi’ah]” are equated based on God telling Jeremiah that neither one will avail for unrepentant people (Jer 7:16).

This sounds hopeless, with God telling the prophet, in essence: Don’t even try it! These folks have burned all their bridges, so don’t you come crying on their behalf!

And yet…

Debts to Pay, Ways to Mend

God tells Jeremiah to not bother praying or pleading on behalf of the people, because they’re already been offered every opportunity to change and have refused. And yet, the verse that Rabbi Ammi cites is prefaced by crystal clear atonement instruction:

If you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one party and another; if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt— (Jer 7:5-6)

Rabbi Ammi’s “what is the remedy?” message says what is needed is prayer. But the passage chosen clarifies that true prayer/pleading means self-reflection and change. Prayer/Pleading ALONE are useless. What’s required is “mending your ways and your actions.”

The prayer for rain asks that the blessing “not be withheld because of unpaid debts.” And that means we cannot JUST pray for blessing. We’ve got debts to pay and ways to mend.

Sources in three-column study sheet with color coding (Rain Debts PDF)

Same material in straight text without colors or columns (Rain Debts Text Only)

NOTE: “Hasidism, Chabad, and Jewish Soul-Language” was originally created for Tzedek Chicago’s Hebrew Learning Community, but this remains entirely the work/opinion of the author.

This began as a few verses from the Tanya with some notes to explore Hebrew words for “soul” and ideas about who has one. It expanded to review translation issues and reflect a little historical context. Now it’s a long, winding, highly idiosyncratic document — complete with PSAs on supporting the kind of internet resources we want to see, plus links to a Teshuvah [answer, solution] on non-Jewish souls.

This was created primarily for Hebrew Learning Community, so it starts out with Hebrew words. This exploration works better via the PDF, I think, so not trying to copy that — here is whole PDF….

…and here is one section — “Authentic” Judaism” and Authoritative Teaching — that has little Hebrew (which doesn’t always copy so well) and is very current and crucial. Or jump to “Non-Jews in Jewish Law and Lore” or To Be a Jew Today

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“Authentic” Judaism and Authoritative Teaching

Chabad has long sought to appear as “authentic” Judaism — perhaps, as noted above, originally in response to criticism of more text-centered opponents of Chasidut. They succeeded in recent decades through marketing and by engaging military and carceral settings, where few Jewish institutions worked. Instead of promoting wider Jewish study and practice, in at least some of its variety, they engage in cult-like exclusion of non-Chabad voices, seek to define who counts as a Jew, actively denigrate other movements within Judaism, and call non-Jews expendable when perceived as a threat. Two examples:

“…[R’ Yitzchak] Ginsburgh’s…teachings hold that it is acceptable Jewish practice to kill non-Jews so long as ‘it is clear that they will grow up to harm us.'” – Anton Goodman, Rabbis for Human Rights, Haaretz, Mar 1, 2023, opinion on settler violence

Note: Ginsburgh (b. 1944) is associated with Chabad, and his teachings appear on their website (as of Feb 21, 2024); Ginsburgh is among those who condoned the 1994 massacre by a settler of 29 Palestinians praying at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. https://tinyurl.com/GoodmanHaaretz

“My considered opinion, as I have reiterated it on several occasions privately and publicly, is based on the undisputable Halachic decision formulated by Rambam (Hilechot Teshuvah 3:8), according to which the doctrines and ideology of the Conservative and Reform movements can only be classed in the category of heretical movements which have plagued our people at one time or another, only to disappear again, having no basis in our everlasting Torah, Toras Emes, Toras Chaim.” — R’ Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), 7/21/1959.

Note: still on Chabad website (as of 2024/02/22); shows up when searching “interdenominational thought,” e.g. — https://tinyurl.com/RebbeConsRef

On-line and in-person, Chabad cites only other Chabad views. Where they are the only, most visible, or only sanctioned option — as in prisons — they are often seen as “the authentic Judaism.” Meanwhile, they routinely limit engagement with those who don’t fit their idea of Jewish, effectively controlling who counts as a Jew in some settings….Matir Asurim: The Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People does some work to address this situation. But there is so much more to be done.

And while Chabad philosophy is not the only, or earliest, set of particularistic Jewish views, they are extremely visible proponents of Jewish supremacy and unusually well-positioned to promote that view as standard Judaism. This is dangerous to Jews everywhere and to the wider world.

In 2016, the Conservative movement issued a Teshuvah (see p.15-16 in PDF and below) declaring any teaching that implies “a distinction between Jewish souls and those of non-Jews…no longer authoritative. These statements are to be rejected, as are any beliefs in racial superiority or inferiority.” The Teshuvah asks “Jewish leaders and educators to incorporate these findings in their preaching and teaching and to emphasize them in all their educational endeavors.” In particular, they call for rejection of the Tanya (Chabad) and Torat HaMelekh (from an Israelli group) and any discriminatory civil laws.

With all this in mind, some general pleas:

ONE) Many schools of Jewish thought tend to cite teachers trained in their own movement and to avoid — by habit, network, or deliberate intention — widely opposing viewpoints.

• When using movement-centered sources, note the movement for yourself and in any citation;
• Whenever possible, use pluralist Jewish sources for general Jewish research;
• Do not use Chabad — which has declared its boundaries so impermeable — as a general Jewish reference source, cite Chabad only on Chabad-specific matters; and exercise caution in citing the Tanya or teaching Chabad ideas

TWO) Support pluralist Jewish reference sources on-line

• through clicks, citations, links, and, if able, finances;
• declare that you (and your organization) prioritize pluralist and non-racist reference material;
• contribute writing, editing, etc., if possible, to pluralist and intentional sites;
• help reduce the size of Chabad’s web-print by not linking to them or giving them clicks; if inclined to explore Chabad-related text, do so via Sefaria or other non-proprietary sources.

[End of excerpt]. Again, here’s the whole PDF.

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Non-Jews in Jewish Law and Lore

For more on this topic, even if you have nothing to do with the Conservative movement, do check “The Status of Non-Jews in Jewish Law and Lore Today.“

It was issued — as a “Teshuvah” [here used in the sense of a formal response, solution] by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative (Masorti) Movement, 21 April 2016. Written by R’ Reuven Hammer (1933-2019).

This teshuvah was unanimously approved on April 21, 2016 (19-0-0). Voting in Favor: Rabbis Kassel Abelson, Pamela Barmash, Miriam Berkowitz, Noah Bickart, David Booth, Elliot Dorff, Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Reuven Hammer, Joshua Heller, Jeremy Kalmanofsky, Jane Kanarek, Gail Labovitz, Amy Levin, Jonathan Lubliner, Daniel Nevins, Micah Peltz, Paul Plotkin, Elie Spitz, and Jay Stein.

In 2016, this committee shared this paper, and the Conservative movement released this statement:

“The paper calls upon Jewish leaders and educators to incorporate these findings in their preaching and teaching and to emphasize them in all their educational endeavors. We must deal honestly with the sources, admit that different attitudes have existed over the course of the development of Judaism, and candidly criticize and reject certain parts of the tradition while embracing others as representing the Judaism we wish to promulgate and which we believe represents the true core of Jewish belief beginning with the Torah itself. In view of the terrible suffering brought upon our people and others in the 20th century by doctrines of racial superiority, any teachings that espouse that in any way must be thoroughly rejected.” 

STATEMENT — https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/status-non-jews-jewish-law-and-lore-today —

WHOLE PAPER — https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/2011-2020/hammer-non-jews-law-lore.pdf

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To Be A Jew Today

Noah Feldman’s book, To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People, (just out in early March: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2024), has an important section on Ginsburgh plus a great deal about related movements, history, politics, and more.

Find it here — SpatzReads at Bookshop — or at your local library.

here are the handouts for teaching at Shavuot tikkun in DC. More after the holiday.

Handouts