Shai Cherry, rabbi of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park and author/featured lecturer for The Great Courses’ Introduction to Judaism, recently published “The Rabbis Were Righteous Heretics” in The Jewish Exponent.

The article discusses “honesty about the development of Jewish tradition,” and asks followers “to continue developing Judaism in kindness and compassion.”

An excerpt:

The Greek word for choosy is heretic. The rabbis were merciful heretics — and, as a university professor, I acknowledged as much. Many of my students interpreted that admission as a fatal flaw and awaited my embrace of their more Bible-centered approach. But that’s the glory of the rabbis’ oral Torah (the Talmud and midrash). It reworks the written Torah in ways that concretize their values through creative interpretations and selective appropriations. When our midrash says that God visits the sick, the implication is that God visited Abraham after he was circumcised.

In 2021, Cherry was featured by The Associated Press in an article titled “Report: Pandemic gives rise to antisemitic ‘Zoom bombing’“. He published Coherent Judaism: Constructive Theology, Creation, and Halakhah in 2020, Torah Through Time: Understanding Bible Commentary from the Rabbinic Period to Modern Times in 2007, and periodically provides commentary for the week’s Torah portion for The Jewish Exponent.

He is the father of two children, one of whom has attended Cheltenham High School.

For Cherry’s full article, you can click here. For more on Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, you can visit their Facebook page and website.

For more on Cherry, you can read his biography or you can watch this Youtube video:

For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.

Photo courtesy of The Jewish Exponent