Why is the prohibition of offering your children to Molech in a chapter full of sex crimes?
Torah Talk for the week of April 28th, 2019
Lev 18:21 Do not allow any of your offspring to be offered up to Molech [ומזרעך לא-תתן להעביר למולך], and do not profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
Why does the priest smear blood on the leper’s ear, thumb, and toe?
Torah Talk for the week of April 7th, 2019
Lev 14:14 The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the ridge of the right ear of him who is being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.
This is Torah Talk for the week of March 24th, 2019
Lev 9:1 On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel. 2 He said to Aaron: “Take a calf of the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and bring them before the Lord. 3 And speak to the Israelites, saying: Take a he-goat for a sin offering; a calf and a lamb, yearlings without blemish, for a burnt offering; 4and an ox and a ram for an offering of well-being to sacrifice before the LORD; and a meal offering with oil mixed in. For today the LORD will appear [נראה] to you.”
But the Hebrew is more mysterious than the translations make it appear.
This is Torah Talk for the week of February 24th, 2019
Exod 38:8 He made the laver of copper and its stand of copper, from the mirrors of the women who performed tasks [הצבאת] at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Who exactly are these women … what are they doing … why is the laver made from these mirrors … and how did Moses get them?
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.
