Weekly Torah Reading, Vayyera’, November 12, 2022

(Genesis 18:1-22:24) “Ambiguous…”   The Torah’s account of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son Isaac has raised questions among readers since ancient times. Among other things, commentators wondered why God needed to test Abraham in the first place. Surely, He must …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Lekh-lekha, November 5, 2022

Genesis 12:1-17:27   Departure to Places Unknown   This week’s Torah reading records the moment when the Holy One commanded Abraham to “set out from your homeland, your relatives, and your immediate family and go on to the land that …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Noaḥ, October 29, 2022

Weekly Torah Reading Noaḥ October 29, 2022   Minor Mysteries After the great flood had subsided, Noah planted a vineyard. In due time it bore fruit, and Noah made some wine from it. Perhaps because he had not consumed any …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Shemini Atzeret, October 17, 2022

Weekly Torah Reading, Shemini Atzeret, October 17, 2022   Un-Parallelism   One subject that biblical scholars have explored is the stylistic feature called parallelism. Especially in biblical poetry, word X, or phrase X, in one clause is paralleled by a …

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Weekly Torah Reading Vayyelekh, October 1, 2022

Moses Didn’t Want to Die In this week’s Torah reading, God instructs Moses that the time has come for him to die—in fact, He says this more than once. The reading opens with Moses relating that “the Lord said to …

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A Rosh ha-Shanah Card

  “A day on which the horn is sounded” (Num 29:1)—was this really the best description the Torah could use to refer to Rosh ha-Shanah? Apparently, it was simply all that was needed in biblical times. After all, the entrance of a …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tavo, September 17, 2022

(Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8) The Seventy Languages   In this week’s reading, the Israelites are about to enter the promised land. At this crucial point, they are given an odd instruction: On the very day that you cross the Jordan River, set …

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Weekly Torah Reading, Ki Tetze, September 10, 2022

Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19   The Slave’s Lot   Most people know that slavery was an accepted institution in many parts of the ancient world. In Israel, there was no debtors’ prison: among other ways, a person could become a slave if …

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