As I read the parsha (Torah portion of the week), I am struck by all the repetition. It seems like every time we turn around, God (haShem) is telling Moshe (Moses) or Moshe and Aaron to raise the staff up to create a plague, or to tell pharaoh to let haShem’s people go to serve him even though, Hashem tells them, that pharaoh will not do it. And pharaoh’s heart keeps being set against the idea of sending the people. … Continue reading
Hi everybody, Welcome to the second book that Moshe/Moses wrote: Exodus, or the Hebrew name Shmot which means names. Why is it called names? Well, that is a story for another day. Today I wish to look at the overall story that we read last week. It starts out by naming all the tribes/children that follow Yaakov/Jacob down to Mitzrayim, which is the Hebrew word for Egypt. We then have a new king who does not know about Yoseph/Joseph and … Continue reading
Today is the darkest day of the year. Yeah, I know some of you will say that the winter solstice holds this honor. And I will say you are wrong. The winter solstice is the longest night of the year. However, when the moon is full on the winter’s solstice, which does happen, that night is pretty well lit up. Especially if there is snow on the ground. Hanukah, and specifically, the 5th day of Hanukah, is the night of … Continue reading
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine who is a homeopath and he was lamenting how difficult it is to explain to people, friends even, how homeopathy works. For those who don’t know, and in a nutshell, homeopathy works by diluting a substance until only its energetic essence is left in the water. The patient takes this dilution and it interacts with the patient’s energy body (spirit) which in turn influences and heals the body. At least this … Continue reading
I am constantly amazed at what ideas come out of my Torah discussion group with Esther and Laura. We were looking at the beginning of what is commonly refered to as the second creation story in the book of Breisheit/Genesis, specifically chapter 2, verse 4 to verse 7. This part of the story starts by telling us that we are looking at a time before anything is made because there was no water and no human to serve the land. … Continue reading
Everybody knows that the bible begins with the story of creation. Well, actually, according to western thinking, the bible begins with 2 creation stories. The first describes the 7 days of creation, and what happens each day. The second story tells us about Adam and Chava (Eve in English) and how they came to be sent from the garden of Eden. The bible critics use these two stories as the first proof that the Torah was written by more than … Continue reading
On Wednesday nights, I host a biblical Hebrew class. We learn a little grammar and then we look at some biblical text. This past week, Ester, Melanie, Natasha, and myself looked at the first version of the weekly Torah portion (parsha) called Noah (Genesis/Breisheit 6:9). The common translation of this verse is: These are the generations of Noah, Noah was a righteous/tzadik and wholehearted/tamim man in his generation; he walked with Hashem (god). Looking at the Hebrew, we had some … Continue reading
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