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תנ׳׳ך

TaNaKh

Reading the Book of Genesis בראשית Today

Jews Don’t Do This

Traditionally, Jews have been highly conscious of their behavior as a group, as “am Israel,” as the people of Israel. Unity and solidarity have been distinctive aspects of that behavior.
If the idea of “Jews don’t do this” doesn’t keep on coming up every time Jews misbehave among themselves and toward others, Erich Fromm’s rumination that we will still have an ethical heritage, but it will soon be spent could become true.

Isaac’s Wells

Even though I approached chapter 26 with an open mind and wide eyes, I had to ask why this particular sentence was written. Surely, the author must have understood that for a story to be passed down through the generations, it needed to be current.

Sarah

November 22, 2024 0Comments

If we were a normal nation, when a visitor arrived here, we would take him not to Yad Vashem [the Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem] but rather to Hebron. We’d take him to where our roots are

Line- by- line Biblicaltext and commentaries: https://www.21stcenturyjudaism.com/the-book-of-exodus/

The Hardening of the Heart

April 11, 2024 0Comments

The Pharaoh of the Book of Exodus is possessed of a ruthless and stubborn character. He is an egocentric, unemotional human being, devoid of all compassion, incapable of feeling the pain of others, shame, or guilt.

The Hyksos

April 11, 2024 0Comments

“…we cannot ignore the possible inclusion of the expulsion of the Hyksos in the source materials which was available for literary activities. One may assume that the Hyksos experience was retold in different ways and in different circles through time. This is not to say that the Hyksos experience should be identified with the story about the Israelites living Egypt. However, the Hyksos event could have been part of the … common tradition which the biblical narrator used for background […] exodus and the consequent wanderings in the wilderness are part of a historical chain of happening and traditions […]”

Moses: The Man

April 11, 2024 0Comments

Starting with the Book of Exodus (Shemot)- and throughout the following three remaining books of the Torah- the figure of Moses is the guiding force. He is, in fact the single most central figure in the TaNaKh.

An Incident in a Small Middle Eastern Tribe

April 13, 2024 0Comments

What really happened that night, on that day hundreds and hundreds of years ago, when the Book of Exodus tells us that

Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt… And he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said: ‘Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.’

The unpredictable, inexplicable help that we encounter

April 18, 2024 0Comments

all through Jewish history, from the Exodus to the Maccabean Revolt to the rising from the ashes of the Nazi Holocaust to the creation of the modern State of Israel, the end result was not the to-be-expected consequences. It was something that surprised even the most optimistic speculations about human capacity.

The Ten Plagues

April 18, 2024 0Comments

The miracles reported in the Bible were supposed to strike the reader as miraculous. Even if some natural phenomena can be found at the heart of the Ten Plagues, the theology rather than the natural history of the plagues intrigued the biblical authors and inspired them to tell the tale of the plagues as they did.

The Hidden Inner Compass

April 11, 2024 0Comments

“The Hebrew midwives disobey Pharaoh. His own daughter thwarts him, and her maidens assist. This Egyptian princess schemes with female slaves, mother and daughter, to adopt a Hebrew child whom she names Moses. As the first to defy the oppressor, women alone take the initiative which leads to deliverance.”

God’s “Absence” in Egypt

April 11, 2024 0Comments

“The four centuries in Egypt pass without a tale worth telling. As with much of Israel’s desert period and the later Babylonian captivity, the Bible considers this sojourn devoid of noteworthy events.”
This kind of historical “blackout” has driven critics to ask: “What was God doing during those years the Israelites suffered under the Egyptians?”

Let’s Talk About Miracles

April 13, 2024 0Comments

To paraphrase Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Jews do not keep their faith because of the miracles they experience. It is their faith that leads them to interpret their life as miraculous.

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תנ׳׳ך

TaNaKh

Reading the Book of Genesis בראשית Today

Jews Don’t Do This

Isaac’s Wells

Sarah

Reading the Book of Exodus-שמות Today

Line- by- line Biblicaltext and commentaries: https://www.21stcenturyjudaism.com/the-book-of-exodus/

The Hardening of the Heart

The Hyksos

Moses: The Man

An Incident in a Small Middle Eastern Tribe

The unpredictable, inexplicable help that we encounter

The Ten Plagues

The Hidden Inner Compass

God’s “Absence” in Egypt

Let’s Talk About Miracles

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