In this week’s Torah portion, Moshe writes saying,30:15 ‘See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 30:16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His...
The book of Genesis implies that from the beginning,Ya-akovwanted to be the firstborn son. In the Torah portionToledothe tried to replace his brother twice, first by trading a bowl of stew for Esau’s inheritance as the firstborn, and then by impersonating Esau to steal their blind father...
However, putting that verseback into its James 2 context, in my humble opinion, I think it means if you depend solely on your praxis to reconcile you with God, that’s the standard by which you’ll be judged. However, if you depend on faith, and out of that faith, comes your practi...
even contain all three elements on its own. The crown of thorns clearly isn’t cedar, but it is made of wood. The reed that they put in his hand could have been hyssop, since Matthew uses the same Greek word for the hyssop branch with the vinegar in verse 48 of the same chapter. ...
Of the animals that can be eaten, the kidneys, fats around the stomach, a portion of the liver, the diaphragm, and the juicy body fats were to be burnt on the altar. The kidneys symbolise to the thought making process. The juicy fats around the stomach, the good fats of the body and...
Rather than supporting Maimonides’ view, a close study of the rabbinicsources reveals a more complex picture. The Mishnah, in tractateSanhedrin,chapter 10, enumerates a list of people who have no portion in the world tocome: “These are they who have no share in the world to come: he...
(RamatGan: Bar Ilan University, 2003), 75. InMikra’ot Gedolot ha-Keterthis passage is included atthe end of Samuel ben Meir’s commentary to Deuteronomy. Samuel ben Meir used similarlanguage in his introduction to the Torah portion Mishpatim: “I will interpret the laws andthe statutes ...
The two great epochs of human history described in this week’s portion are not mere historical accounts but rather they are portraits of a classic human dilemma that persists till today. It is therefore no accident that these two time periods dissect this Biblical reading precisely in half. Th...
This newest book on Numbers is different from her first two books on Genesis and Exodus, in that it is organized along thematic lines rather than adhering strictly to the weekly-Torah-portion model. She aims to be more generally accessible, following up on her previous book, The Murmuring Dee...
containing the laws found in Deuteronomy. These codes, it is said, were succes-sively composed with the intent of replacing the law found in an earlier code.Thus, for example, Deuteronomy offers its own version of the law of manumis-sion (eved ivri) in chapter 15, because its author ...