This is Torah Talk for the week of May 1st, 2022 Lev. 20:9    If anyone insults his father or his mother, he shall be put to death; he has insulted his father and his mother—his bloodguilt is upon him [דָּמָ֥יו בּֽוֹ]. Why does Leviticus 20 seem to repeat Leviticus 18, and how can we explain the […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of April 24th, 2022 Lev. 18:21             Do not allow any of your offspring to be offered up to Molech, and do not profane the name [וְלֹ֧א תְחַלֵּ֛ל אֶת־שֵׁ֥ם]  of your God: I am the Lord. What does “do not profane the name” mean, and why is this the […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of April 3rd, 2022 Lev. 15:1   The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying … But what the Lord says in v. 3 is different in 3 of the ancient versions from what the Masoretic Text tells us. This week’s handout: 28 Metzora 5782 Learn Biblical Hebrew! Donate via Paypal! Click here for more links […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of March 27th, 2022 Lev. 13:2    When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration, and it develops into a scaly affection on the skin of his body, it shall be reported to Aaron the priest or to one […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of March 20th, 2022 Lev. 9:24    Fire came forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar. And all the people saw, and shouted, and fell on their faces … 2 And fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them.   Is this […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of March 13th, 2022 Lev. 6:1    The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2  Command Aaron and his sons thus:      This is the ritual of the burnt offering: The burnt offering itself shall remain where it is burned [עַל֩ מוֹקְדָ֨ה הִ֣וא הָעֹלָ֡ה] upon the altar all night until morning, […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of March 6th, 2022 Lev. 1:3    If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd … 9 … the priest shall turn the whole into smoke on the altar as a burnt offering, an offering by fire [אִשֵּׁ֥ה] of pleasing odor to the Lord. Lev. 1:10 […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of February 27th, 2022 Exodus 39:2 The ephod was made of gold, blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine twisted linen [שֵׁ֥שׁ מָשְׁזָֽר]. This expression appears nowhere else but in the second half of the book of Exodus.  What in the world is twisted linen, and why does מָשְׁזָֽר […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of February 20th, 2022 Exodus 37:6-9 [Bezalel] made a cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. 7 He made two cherubim of gold; he made them of hammered work, at the two ends of the cover: 8 one cherub at […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of February 13th, 2022 Exodus 34:14  You must not worship any other god, because the Lord, whose name is Impassioned [קַנָּ֣א שְׁמ֔וֹ], is an impassioned God [אֵ֥ל קַנָּ֖א הֽוּא]. Or, as others translate, a jealous God.  But what does it mean to say that God’s name is Jealous? This week’s […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of February 6th, 2022 Exodus 29:38 Now this is what you shall offer upon the altar … 42 … at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting [אֹֽהֶל־מוֹעֵ֖ד] before the Lord. For there I will meet with you [אִוָּעֵ֤ד], and there I will speak with you, 43 and there I […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of January 30th, 2022 Exodus 25 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary [מִקְדָּ֑שׁ] that I may dwell [וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י] among them. 9 Exactly as I show you—the pattern of the Tabernacle [הַמִּשְׁכָּ֔ן] and the pattern of all its furnishings—so shall you make it. What is a mikdash … what […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of January 23rd, 2022 Ex. 21:1 These are the rules that you shall set before them: …  Ex. 23:19 … You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.   These are the beginning and ending words of the Covenant Code. [Or are they?  For more on this, listen […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of January 16th, 2022 Ex. 20:21 [24]  Make for Me an altar of earth … 22 And if you make for Me an altar of stones …   Is this anticlimactic paragraph the end of the Ten Commandments?  Is it the beginning of the Covenant Code?  And why does it matter? This […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of January 9th, 2022 Ex. 14:1  The Lord said to Moses …  3 Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, “They are astray in the land [נְבֻכִ֥ים הֵ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ]; the wilderness has closed in on them.” What does נבוכים really mean?  Why does Pharaoh not say this, as God expects?  And why […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of January 2nd, 2022 Exodus 12:42 That was for the Lord a night of vigil [שִׁמֻּרִ֥ים] to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that same night is the Lord’s, one of vigil [שִׁמֻּרִ֛ים] for all the children of Israel throughout the ages. What is/are שִׁמֻּרִים and why is […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of December 26th, 2021 Exodus 6:4 I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners [‏אֶ֥רֶץ מְגֻרֵיהֶ֖ם אֲשֶׁר־גָּ֥רוּ בָֽהּ]. In Hebrew, you can “live” using lots of different verbs.  Translations often obscure the difference between settling […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of December 19th, 2021 Exodus 3:13 Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of December 12th, 2021 Gen. 50:1 Joseph flung himself upon his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. 2 Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 It required forty days, for such is the full period […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of December 5th, 2021 Gen. 47:1  Then Joseph came … 2 And selecting a few of his brothers [וּמִקְצֵ֣ה אֶחָ֔יו לָקַ֖ח חֲמִשָּׁ֣ה אֲנָשִׁ֑ים], he presented them to Pharaoh. “A few” is literally five (it’s an Egyptian thing).  But why does he select them from the end of his brothers?  (That’s what קצה literally means.) […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of November 28th, 2021 Gen. 43:29      Looking about, he saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and asked, “Is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me?” And he went on, “May God be gracious to you, my boy.” 30 With that, Joseph hurried out, […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of November 21st, 2021 Gen. 37:2  This, then, is the line [אֵ֣לֶּה ׀ תֹּלְד֣וֹת] of Jacob. What does תֹּלְד֣וֹת mean, and why does Rashi’s grandson wait until this verse to explain his methods? This week’s handout: 09 Vayeshev 5782 Learn Biblical Hebrew! Donate via Paypal! Click here for more links or to contact me.

This is Torah Talk for the week of November 14th, 2021 Gen. 35:18  But as Rachel breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her baby Ben-oni [בֶּן־אוֹנִ֑י]; but his father called him Benjamin [בִנְיָמִֽין]. What do these names mean, and what does Benjamin’s name imply? This week’s handout: 08 Vayishlach 5782 Learn Biblical Hebrew! Donate via Paypal! Click here for […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of November 7th, 2021 Gen. 31:14 Then Rachel and Leah answered him, saying, “Have we still a share in the inheritance [הַע֥וֹד לָ֛נוּ חֵ֥לֶק וְנַחֲלָ֖ה] of our father’s house?” What are Rachel and Leah complaining about, and where else does that phrase direct our attention? This week’s handout: 07 Vayetze […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of October 31st, 2021 Gen. 26:1   There was a famine in the land—aside from the previous famine [מִלְּבַד֙ הָרָעָ֣ב הָרִאשׁ֔וֹן] that had occurred in the days of Abraham—and Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Why must the story of Isaac tell us that this was […]