What was the nature of the plague of Hoshekh, darkness, the ninth calamity that God brought on the Egyptians? The Torah describes a darkness so thick it was tangible. What’s more, it prevented Egyptians from any and all movement. “People could not see one another, and for three days no one could move about” (Exodus 10:23). Continue Reading »
When we first meet Moshe as a grownup, we are introduced to a man of action. He goes out, ostensibly from his sheltered life in the palace, among his People. He sees an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew. “He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and Continue Reading »
“What the magic word?” We probably know this expression from our childhood, when we were taught to say things like “please” and “thank you.” Or maybe we think of mythic tales with words like “abracadabra,” which, by the way, has an Aramaic origin (avra kedabra–I will create as I speak”). As we arrive at the Continue Reading »
As we reach the height of narrative drama in the Yosef story, we encounter the longest speech in Sefer Bereshit. At the end of last week’s Torah portion, Miketz, Yosef’s “stolen” divining cup has been found in Binyamin’s backpack. Despite Yehudah’s commitment that all the brothers shall remain in Egypt as slaves, Yosef in his continuing concealed Continue Reading »
My go-to resource for all things Hanukkah is the pair of books edited by Noam Zion called A Different Light. These volumes are full of the history and big ideas of what is probably Judaism’s best-known holiday. There is no doubt that this holiday is meant to give a boost to Jewish pride; the placing of Continue Reading »
This past Monday, we had the first topical session of our adult education class on Jewish ethics. Using the book Modern Musar: Contested Virtues in Jewish Thought, we explored a variety of attitudes in modern Jewish thought to the topic of honesty and love of truth. And the timing couldn’t have been better, since this is Continue Reading »
Long before When Harry Met Sally became an American classic, the Torah has another story of a couple’s first encounter. This week, near the end of Parshat Hayei-Sarah, Rivkah meets Yitzhak. And she has quite the reaction when she does. Or does she? Where Yitzhak, wandering in the field just before nightfall, sees camels, Rivkah sees a Continue Reading »
As I mentioned on Rosh Hashanah, I’m engaged daily in the 929 Project, a journey through the entire Hebrew Bible, all 929 chapters of it. Today’s chapter, Joshua 13, seems especially timely on the cusp of Veterans Day. The chapter comes after a summary of the conquests of 31 kings and city-states under Joshua’s military Continue Reading »
In English, the expression is “saving the best for last.” In Hebrew, it would be “aharon aharon haviv.” We humans like this idea, since we are the final element of the first creation story in Genesis 1. After God gives the universe order and structure, after the sun, moon, and stars have been set in Continue Reading »
In keeping with our custom to explore a chapter of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, on Sukkot, I tried making sense of chapter 6 of this Biblical scroll. When I read the last verse of the chapter, I felt that the text was “throwing shade” at me. Do you know that expression? The urban dictionary defines it as “acting Continue Reading »
