“Before one turns the potential into the actual, the two are tied together and nothing separates them, for as it says in the prayer L’Ka Dodi, ‘What comes to pass first existed as a thought…’ “[Therefore] don’t be frustrated by obstacles you encounter on your path. These are there by design, to increase your desire for the goal you seek. The greater the goal, the greater the yearning that is needed to achieve it.” -Rabbi Nahman, Likutei Moharan Part One, 66

It’s been a week since the celebrated author, Salman Rushdie, was stabbed on the stage of a Chautauqua lecture hall, where, ironically, he was planning to discuss protections for writers who are persecuted. It’s a topic in which he has the deepest expertise ever since he was forced to go into hiding after an Iranian mullah issued a fatwah on him back in 1989.

Last week in this column, I passed along some information about a meeting that the Oregon Board of Rabbis held with Archbishop Sample, who had made a disturbing comparison between abortion and the Holocaust. The archbishop received our concerns and removed the offending statement from his YouTube video. This past week, he also indicated that he would offer a more formal apology in the press. I have been moved by his willingness to learn and make adjustments in real time.

In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, Alexander Sample, the Catholic Archbishop of Portland, put out a YouTube video entitled Abortion and Catholics. It was picked up by the Willamette Week, which ridiculed the archbishop and highlighted a problematic statement buried late in the video. I’ll return to that issue in a bit.

This July 31st marks the twentieth anniversary of a Hamas attack on the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria at Hebrew University. Nine people died in that bombing, including David (Diego) Ladowski, who was a friend of Cantor Bitton. Janis Coulter, Marla Bennett, and Ben Blutstein also were murdered that day; In addition to the nine who died, scores of people were injured. I was one of them, sitting five meters from where the bomb exploded.

This week’s Torah portion confronts us with a disturbing moment. Pinchas, a zealot who killed two lovers in last week’s reading, receives God’s brit shalom, a covenant of peace. How can someone who committed murder in cold blood turn around and suddenly get rewarded for his violent behavior? My father possessed a very flat, dry wit, and I can hear him stating, “Life’s not fair, and it’s not fair that life’s not fair.”

For the past few weeks, I have wanted to offer a few words in memory of David Weiss-Halivni, who died at the end of June. He was both a Holocaust survivor as well as one of the most important Talmudic scholars of all time and taught at JTS for many years. His great innovation was to be the first scholar who discerned and separated out the historical layers, or seam- lines, of a Talmudic argument.