Introduction This week, for the next 21 weeks, I will write an essay on the biblical book Judges, just as I did for Joshua. I think that readers will find many interesting matters in Judges, including fascinating stories, and by examining Judges closely, they will learn much about the unusual style of [...]
A summary of Joshua I concluded my weekly essays on the biblical book Joshua, one chapter a week for 24 weeks. The following is a summary of some of what was in these chapters. This week I will begin presenting discussions every week on the 21 chapters in the biblical book Judges. The book [...]
Vayakeil Be all you can be[1] Beginning with chapter 25 through the end of Exodus, with the exception of chapters 32–34, the Torah describes the construction of the mobile dessert sanctuary called the Mishkan, Tabernacle in English. The narration of the construction of the Tabernacle and its utensils follows [...]
Chapter 24 Does Joshua 24 deny the revelation of the Decalogue at Sinai? The chapter contains an account of a covenant that Joshua made with the Israelites in the city of Shechem[1] toward the end of his life. He persuaded them to agree to never abandon God by worshipping idols. He [...]
Review by Israel Drazin A Synagogue Companion By Rabbi Hayyim Angel Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, 2014, 351 pages Rabbi Hayyim Angel is a scholar who writes very readable, interesting, and informative books. He presents “a vision of the Torah that is authentic, passionate, reasonable, and embracing [...]
KEE TISSA (Chapters 30:11–38:20) The evil eye[1] Exodus 30 required Israelites to count the number of men who would be available for battle. The Bible states: “When you take the count of the Israelites, their number, every man must give a kopher for himself to the Lord when [...]
Chapter 23 Joshua’s penultimate message How many biblical commands are there? Feeling old and near death, Joshua gathers the people[1] for two final messages.[2] He warns the people that they must obey God’s will.[3] If they fail to do so, they will be driven from the land of Canaan.[4] Chapter [...]
Religion in the Military By Israel Drazin One of the concerns of the founders of our country, and probably one of the most important, was the protection of personal liberties, and of these, the right to practice one’s religion as one sees fit was one of their greatest [...]
TETZAVEH (Chapters 27:20–30:1) Moses’ Name is Missing This biblical portion Tetzaveh is the only one from Exodus through Deuteronomy that does not contain Moses’s name. Why? And what can we learn from this? One midrashic[1] suggestion for this unusual occurrence is that it has to do with Moses’ plea [...]
Chapter 22 Part two The curious near civil war over an altar Seven years of battles to defeat and control Canaan ended followed, according to a tradition, with seven additional years[1] during which the priest, Joshua, and elders divided the land among the nine and a half tribes who settled in [...]
TERUMAH (Chapters 25:1–27:19) The ancient Sanctuary was not built for God[1] This section of the Torah commands the building of a Sanctuary, a tent in which sacrifices were offered to God. Commentators dispute whether the command was issued before or after the episode of the golden calf which is [...]
More on the possibility that the post-Moses-era Israelites knew nothing about the Torah Joshua 22 As previously stated,[1] there seems to be no indication in the biblical books describing life after the days of Moses until the time of King Josiah (641-609) that the Israelites knew about Moses’ Torah or observed the [...]
Chapter 21 Levitical Cities Chapter 21 lists 42 cities situated throughout Canaan, in no centralized area, that were assigned to the Levites, including the priests who were descendants of Aaron who was a Levite.[1] The rabbis later added the six cities identified as cities of refuge to the 42 yielding a [...]
Chapter 20 Did the post-Moses-era Israelites know about the Torah? We have seen what appears to be evidence in the prior chapters that the book of Joshua was composed centuries after the events about which it reports, in the kingdom of Judea, after the days of King David, that it shows a [...]
MISHPATIM (Chapters 21:1–24:18) Was the entire Torah revealed at Sinai? In the Torah portion of Mishpatim, we find the beginning of the unfolding of an intricate and complex set of social regulations called civil laws in most societies. Civil laws place God outside of the public arena and replaces divine [...]
Ibn Ezra in Deuteronomy I mentioned in my prior essays on the famed thinker Abraham ibn Ezra’s Bible commentaries that although he was generally a brilliant rational thinking, he wasn’t always so, and some of his ideas are not rational. The same phenomenon occurs in his views on Deuteronomy, as seen in [...]
I am continuing here my commentary on the book Joshua. It suggests that we should understand the events as natural not supernatural events. Chapter 16 and 17 describe the land Joshua apportioned to the two Joseph tribes Ephraim (16:5-10) and Manasseh (17:1-13). Two allotments are given to the Joseph tribes because their ancestor the [...]
Abraham Ibn Ezra in Numbers As I wrote in prior essays that focused on the brilliant thinker Abraham ibn Ezra’s biblical commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, there are ibn Ezra views that people will like and others they will not like, and may even feel are irrational. The following are examples from [...]
Yitro (Chapters 18:1–20:23) Revelation and the Ten Commandments (Chapter 20:1–14)[1] The events preceding the revelation are told in chapter 19. Moses ascends Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:3) and communicates with God on the third day of the third month. He descends on the same day (Exodus 19:7) and communicates [...]
Chapter 15 Chapter 15 contains three parts: verses 1-12 describes the land apportioned to the tribe of Judah, 13-19 has the tale of Caleb’s brother Othniel occupying the city of Debir and obtaining Caleb’s daughter as a reward, and 20-63 records the principal cities in Judah’s territory. Each of the three sections contains problems. Judah’s [...]
Ibn Ezra in Leviticus I described some rational and irrational views of the brilliant sage Abraham ibn Ezra (born 1089 or 1092 and died at age 75) in my brief essay on his views in the biblical books Genesis and Exodus. We see the same phenomenon of seemingly contradictory views of [...]
Review by Israel Drazin The Book of Job By Mark Larrimore Princeton University Press, 2013, 286 pages ISBN 978-0-691-14759-8 Mark Larrimore offers readers a clear presentation of the views of many well-respected interpreters of the difficult to understand biblical book Job. Job, as he shows, raises many problems. Most interpreters [...]
Ibn Ezra: Strange Interpretations Exodus Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164) was a brilliant thinker and had views about the Bible that are quite different than most people have today; some ideas were rational, others, as I will show, were not. The following are some of his understandings of the [...]
B’SHALACH (Chapters 13:17–17:16) Was the manna a miracle?[1] Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and Ethics of the Fathers 5:8 inform us that the manna in Exodus 16:14–36, this “bread from heaven,” was “hidden away from the beginning;” that is, when the world was created. Should we understand this rabbinical statement literally? What is accomplished [...]
Chapter 14 Joshua’s seven-year leadership of the conquest of Canaan ended with the close of chapter 12. Others will lead future battles against the Canaanites. Joshua turns his attention to the division of Canaan among the Israelite tribes. Moses distributed the land in Trans-Jordan to two and a half tribes. Now Joshua [...]
Doubting Jesus’ Resurrection By Kris D. Komarnitsky Kris D. Komarnitsky does not attack Christianity, but like President Thomas Jefferson, Leo Tolstoy, Bart D. Ehrman, and a host of other rational thinkers, he questions and dismisses the miraculous elements of the Christian faith. His focus in this superbly composed and easy to read book is [...]
BO (Chapters 10:21–13:16) The Jewish Lunar Calendar is Born (chapter 12:1–2)[1] The first commandment given to the Israelites is in Exodus 12:1–2: “This month shall be for you the beginning of the months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.” [...]
Ibn Ezra in Genesis Clerics give sermons and extol certain biblical commentators giving their congregants the impression that whatever the person said was correct even though the commentator, like all of us, also made remarks that were not acceptable. Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164) is an example. Some of his interpretations are rational, others [...]
Joshua Chapter 13 Chapter 13 reveals that, like Moses, Joshua was unable to fulfill all of his life missions. He is now old and weak. Others will assume his job as military leader and divider of conquered Canaanite territories among the nine and a half Israelite tribes who would be settling [...]
VA’EIRA (Chapters 6:2–9:35)[1] God’s name and miracles In Exodus 6:3, Moses is informed that God appeared to the Israelite ancestors “as El Shaddai, but I did not make myself known to them by my name y-h-v-h.” This “name” El Shaddai drew many interpretations. Are the “names” of God [...]
