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
This is Torah Talk for the week of August 5th, 2018
Deut. 13:13 If you hear it said, of one of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you to dwell in, 14 that some scoundrels from among you have gone and subverted the inhabitants of their town, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom you have not experienced— 15 you shall investigate and inquire and interrogate thoroughly [ודרשת וחקרת ושאלת היטב] If it is true, the fact is established—that abhorrent thing was perpetrated in your midst— 16 put the inhabitants of that town to the sword and put its cattle to the sword. Doom it and all that is in it to destruction.
What does חקר mean, and why and how should we do it?
This is Torah Talk for the week of July 29th, 2018
Deut 7:15 The LORD will ward off from you all sickness; He will not bring upon you any of the dreadful diseases of Egypt [מדוי מצרים], about which you know, but will inflict them upon all your enemies.
What are the “diseases of Egypt,” and what does this promise imply?
Num. 28:7 The libation with it shall be a quarter of a hin for each lamb, to be poured in the sacred precinct as an offering of fermented drink [שכר] to the LORD. 8The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, preparing the same meal offering and libation as in the morning—an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the LORD.
