[The one thing we will never get back is every minute that ticks away. Past is past, future is a tick away, what we have at all times is each moment and yet that is so . . . ‘momentary’? One tick and it’s gone and time continues to tick away. If you are the […]
Read more[First posted in 2014. The Sinaite’s Library is full of every translation available of the book that claims to be “the very words of God.” Understandably such a claim draws the skepticism and scrutiny of those who challenge that claim. Religionists simply swallow it and consider the challengers as irreverent, irreligious, blasphemous, anti-Christs, etc. And […]
Read moreOne of the longest ‘search terms’ landed on our website on 1/12/14. Automatically, it was added to the daily updated post intended as aid for searchers: Yo Searchers! Can we help you? – January 2014. Since it was in the form of a question which had ‘loaded’ implications coming from a mindset that was obviously […]
Read more[Read the title of this post, who would you think spoke these words to Yaakov? Surprise, surprise, his two sister-wives Leah and Rachel, vs. 16.. Actually it should not be a surprise: Adam listened to Eve’s voice, Abram listened to Sarai’s voice, Yaakov listened to Rebekah’s voice. This is contrary to the status of women […]
Read more[The title of this post states exactly what this chapter is about: One. Yaakov’s sister-wives try to out-baby each other going to the point of using their maidservants as surrogate mothers. What is it about having babies that obsess these rival sister-wives? It couldn’t possibly be a scramble to fulfill prophecy; it must simply be […]
Read more[Let us not forget why Yaakov is on this journey . . . search for a wife is the official reason, but mother Rebekah has decided it would be best for her favored twin to be away from father Yitzchak they both had deceived and twin Esau who was angry over losing his birthright. The […]
Read more[Seriously, my first exposure to this story is through what used to be called “Negro Spirituals”; the lyrics went like this: “Jacob dreamt he saw a ladder reachin’ to the sky; angels comin’ up and downin’; climb up chil’lun climb!” I’m not sure if race sensitivity has changed what is considered as offensive language from “Negro […]
Read more[From the very first careful and in-depth reading of the narratives about the twins Esau and Isaac, the twin who caught our attention was Esau, not Isaac. We know that Rabbinic as well as Christian commentators tend to stereotype him as a man who gives in to his carnal desires, and because of the Edomites […]
Read more[This chapter begins with a strange ‘deja vu’ except the first two times, the experience was related to Abraham . . . now almost exactly the same experience happens to 2nd generation Yitschaq. It is this kind of repetition that sometimes makes you wonder if the copyists of the Hebrew Scriptures might have made mistakes, […]
Read more[Unbracketted commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz which is a collection of rabbinic and non-Jewish scholarly interpretation of the Torah books. When commentators go beyond the plain meaning of the text, you wonder what is the agenda for doing so; usually it’s the religious perspective that gets in the way of objectivity. This is […]
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