Dena Weiss. Pinchas is a complex character. On the one hand, he is a hero. It is he and only he who is willing to take matters into his own hands to defend God’s honor. His violent heroics soothe God’s jealousy and save many lives in the process. However, the Rabbinic tradition is equivocal on how to read Pinchas and his legacy. We could try to decide which reading is correct and declare Pinchas as either righteous or problematic, or choose to draw an entirely flattering or entirely condemnatory image of who he is. However, we can also use these differing readings together and understand that Pinhas is both. Reading Pinchas in all his complexity will enable us to construct a more nuanced picture of what it means to read the same act as both positive and negative, and often how complicated it can be for anyone to do “the right thing.”

Dena Weiss. Summer Lecture Series: Dangerous Torah, Part 1 - The Torah is a complicated tool. Sometimes, the Torah appears more successful in molding us as God's people: like God, close to God, and good to one another. But, sometimes Torah encourages or enables negative aspects of individuals to come to the fore, often with bad repercussions for society. And sometimes people who do not represent God's values come to represent God's Torah. Together, we'll think deeply about the question of whether bad people can produce good Torah or whether good Torah can produce bad people. How are we to relate to Torah that has a tainted pedigree and how do we love a Torah that doesn't always produce the good that we expect?