The Jewish Studies Blog

Biblical  Portraits:   Rebecca And Her Sons

Biblical Portraits: Rebecca And Her Sons

The Disturbing Story A dear friend of mine used to often say (quoting her Rabbi’s words): always look for the “Menorah pattern”. I recalled these words when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to squeeze the whole story of Genesis 27 into one post as I had hoped. That means we will have to […]

Bibilical Portraits: Rebecca (5)

Bibilical Portraits: Rebecca (5)

The Question In the last post, we spoke about the phrase:  שְׁנֵי גֹיִים בְּבִטְנֵךְ – Two nations are in your womb – from the prophecy that Lord gave to Rebecca when she was still pregnant. I mentioned that this phrase has been used repeatedly in our history to define the relationship of the people of Israel to […]

Biblical    Portraits:    Rebecca    (4)

Biblical Portraits: Rebecca (4)

THE LORD’S ANSWER We continue watching Rebecca on these pages. You have probably noticed that of all the four matriarchs (Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel), Rebecca’s personality is the most fully defined and described in Scripture – and I think this fact by itself bears witness to her outstanding character. We saw Rebecca as a […]

Biblical Portraits: Rebecca (3)

Biblical Portraits: Rebecca (3)

  My dear readers, you probably think that by now, the most exciting part of our story is over: our heroes have now met, and this initial meeting went very well—the girl even fell down from the camel when she saw her bridegroom for the first time—clearly she was very impressed by him, so what […]

Biblical Portraits : Rebecca (2)

Biblical Portraits : Rebecca (2)

First meeting   Last time, we spoke of this amazing young girl being able to make, so quickly and so boldly, the incredible life-changing decision of faith: to leave her home and her family for good, and to follow Abraham’s servant to Canaan. All of this happens in Genesis 24 – and at the very […]

Biblical Portraits:  Rebecca (1)

Biblical Portraits: Rebecca (1)

My readers would already know that I love series—probably because I am used to writing books and I find it difficult to squeeze all my thoughts on a subject into one post. That’s why we’ve already had several series here: The Hidden Messiah; The Bible Stories you didn’t know; Passover Reflections. Today we are starting […]

Parasha Chukkat – The Bronze Snake

Parasha Chukkat – The Bronze Snake

Several times, I’ve been asked to post a Torah Portion (Parashat Shavua) commentary here. Today, I decided to share with you this commentary on one of my favorite Torah Portions— Parashat Shavua Chukkat (the reading for last Shabbat). The story of the Bronze Snake is one the most graphic and expressive stories in the Torah. […]

Messiah And Son Of Man: The Answers

Messiah And Son Of Man: The Answers

Two hopes My dear readers, I really appreciate your patience. To some of you, my last posts might have seemed a bit dry, but without this evidence, even dry evidence, we cannot fully comprehend the story of Israel and Jesus. In our last article, we saw that apocalypses turned out to be the main carrier […]

Messiah And Son Of Man In The Gospels (iii): Apocalypses

Messiah And Son Of Man In The Gospels (iii): Apocalypses

My readers are probably aware of the difference between the term משיח  (Mashiach /Messiah), which is used in the Hebrew Bible in reference to an actual ruling king or priest, and the concept of “Messianism”, which originally derives from that noun but refers to images, symbols or concepts of an eschatological savior.  It is a […]

Messiah And Son Of Man  In The Gospels  (ii)

Messiah And Son Of Man In The Gospels (ii)

  As some of my readers will no doubt remember, we discussed a messianic secret of the Gospels some time ago, termed the Hidden Messiah. Last week, we went back to this topic and realized, once again, that Jesus had been avoiding the title of Messiah throughout the Gospels. We saw Jesus carefully avoiding this […]

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