This is Torah Talk for the week of January 27th, 2019
Exod. 24:4 Early in the morning, he set up an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for [ל] the twelve tribes of Israel. [Apologies; on the recording I say by mistake that this preposition is על.]
Exod. 24:8 Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people …
What were the pillars for, and what was Moses doing with the blood?
This is Torah Talk for the week of October 28th, 2018
Gen. 25:5 Abraham willed all that he owned to Isaac; 6 but to Abraham’s sons by concubines Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the East.
This is Torah Talk for the week of September 30th, 2018
Gen. 1:1
When God began to createa heaven and earth— 2 the earth being תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind fromb God sweeping over the water— 3 God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.c
What does תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ mean?
NJPS: unformed and void
KJV: without form, and void
NRSV: a formless void
LXX: ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος [“invisible and not properly prepared”]
Everett Fox: wild and waste
Jack Sasson: “Hodgepodge” [“Time … to Begin,” in Sha’arei Talmon,188]
This is Torah Talk for the week of September 2nd, 2018
Deut. 29:27 “The LORD uprooted them from their soil in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is still the case [כיום הזה].”
Why is the ל so big? What does “as is still the case” mean? “The LORD uprooted them” points us to an answer
