TIKKUN OLAM BEGINS When we enter Torah Portion Lech-Lecha, an entirely new period begins. So far, we have seen God’s intervention in judgment: both in the flood and in the story of the tower of Babel, God punished man for his sin and rebellion. But when God called Abram, He personally and actively intervened in […]
TECHNICAL COMMAND OR THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT? We continue our journey through this amazing Torah Portion. One more place in this Parashah became a great blessing for me. I was utterly surprised to find here the root -כפר – Kafar: יד עֲשֵׂה לְךָ תֵּבַת עֲצֵי-גֹפֶר, קִנִּים תַּעֲשֶׂה אֶת-הַתֵּבָה; וְכָפַרְתָּ אֹתָהּ מִבַּיִת וּמִחוּץ, בַּכֹּפֶר. 14 Make thee an […]
Once again, we are going to talk about Torah Portion today. The second Parashat Shavua of the year is Noach (Noah) Genesis 6:9-11:32. Everybody knows the story of Noah. This is one of the first stories from the Tanach that parents tell their kids – and by the time they are adults, people usually have heard […]
As we already know, Sukkot is “the season of our joy” – and the joy of Sukkot reaches its peak during its final day – Simchat Torah. Simchat Torah (lit.: The Joy of Torah) is a holiday that marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah reading, and the beginning of a new cycle. The […]
Today we are going to speak about the Torah reading for Shabbat that falls on intermediate days of Sukkot: Exodus 33:12-34:26. Before we do that, however, I would like to clarify some terms connected to the Festival: what does “intermediate days of Sukkot” mean? In Leviticus 23, we read about Moadei Adonai – the […]
ZMAN SIMCHATEINU Sukkot starts almost immediately after the solemn and sober Days of Awe—the days of trembling and repentance. We finish the fast of Yom Kippur, and on the same night, we start building sukkot – tabernacles. Years ago, I lived in a house with a large common yard and I loved watching my religious […]
TWO GOATS In Leviticus 16, we find a detailed description of the Day of Atonement liturgy at the Tabernacle and Temple: a sin offering involving two goats. They were chosen to be as similar as possible to one another; they were then brought before the High Priest and lots were drawn, one bearing the words “To […]
“Hidden Savior” Pattern This article concludes our analysis of 11QMelchizedek. As we have seen in our previous posts, this whole text presents an eschatological scenario of the coming judgment. In this sense, we have all the necessary components here: coming end and judgment, on the one hand, and salvation of the righteous ones, on the […]
Melchizedek as a Transcendental Savior We continue our discussion of one of the oldest and most astonishing documents discovered at Qumran, the fragment called 11QMelchizedek. In our last article, we saw that the very selection of the biblical texts in 11QMelchizedek bore witness to a messianic reading of this text. Melchizedek of 11QMelch can certainly […]
The Mysterious Figure People often wonder who Melchizedek was. Some believe he was Noah’s son Shem reincarnated; others that he was an angel; early church fathers taught that he was the pre-incarnation of Jesus, and many Christians today still think so. Let us try to sort these things out. As always, I am not claiming to possess a […]
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