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TaNaKh

Reading the Book of Genesis בראשית Today

Chaos and Creation

October 25, 2024 0Comments

The Hanging Threat of Chaos The creation story in the first chapters of the Torah would be misunderstood if read simply as an intended report of an event that happened at the beginning of time. A half-baked…

And Then Came the Flood

November 1, 2024 0Comments

The flood was caused by “hamas,” the Hebrew word used by the Torah to refer to “violence.”
“Hamas” is the same word the Scriptures use to describe the sin for which Nineveh was to be destroyed in the book of Jonas and for which “sulfurous fire” rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

A Blessing and a Demand

November 8, 2024 0Comments

an estimated 54% of the world’s population, some 3.8 billion people, revere the patriarch Abraham as the common ancestor of all religions of Semitic origin. An authentic Abrahamic tradition, Jewish, Christian or Islamic would be one that would follow the reason given in the Torah for Abraham’s preeminence

The Sacrifice of Reason Rather Than Isaac’s

November 14, 2024 0Comments

Genesis 22. When carefully reading what the text says, the message of this chapter is that God does not want Isaac to be sacrificed. God’s love and mercy are available to humanity without having to be earned by sacrificing another human being.

God’s “Absence” in Egypt

Exodus, TaNaKh April 11, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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“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?”

The Hardening of the Heart

Exodus, TaNaKh April 11, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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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 Hidden Inner Compass

Exodus, TaNaKh April 11, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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“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.”

An Incident in a Small Middle Eastern Tribe

Exodus, TaNaKh April 13, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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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 Ten Plagues

Exodus, TaNaKh April 18, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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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 unpredictable, inexplicable help that we encounter

Exodus, TaNaKh April 18, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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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.

Moses: The Man

Exodus, TaNaKh April 11, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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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.

Let’s Talk About Miracles

Exodus, TaNaKh April 13, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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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.

The Hyksos

Exodus, TaNaKh April 11, 2024 by Rabbi Moshe Pitchon 0Comments

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“…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 […]”

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תנ׳׳ך

TaNaKh

Reading the Book of Genesis בראשית Today

Chaos and Creation

And Then Came the Flood

A Blessing and a Demand

The Sacrifice of Reason Rather Than Isaac’s

Reading the Book of Exodus-שמות Today

God’s “Absence” in Egypt

The Hardening of the Heart

The Hidden Inner Compass

An Incident in a Small Middle Eastern Tribe

The Ten Plagues

The unpredictable, inexplicable help that we encounter

Moses: The Man

Let’s Talk About Miracles

The Hyksos

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

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