Posted by Navah on Jan 11, 2025 in The Patriarchs' Saga
After Yoseph was sold in slavery and spent many years first as a slave and then in a prison accused unjustly, he rose to power in Egypt to become only second to Pharoah; he became the viceroy of Egypt. And Yoseph changed. Away from home and family, he was no longer the favored son of his father, who was reporting his brothers. In his encounter with his brothers, who came down to Egypt to buy grain on account of the famine in the land of Kana’an, he learned that his...
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Posted by Navah on Jan 5, 2025 in The Exiles, The Patriarchs' Saga
Yoseph administered Egypt during the seven years of famine, which are interrupted in order to describe how his family came to settle in Egypt. In the first year of the famine, there was no bread in the entire country, since the famine was very severe and all the grain that they had set aside as a reserve during the seven years of plenty had gone. And because the people languished due to the famine, Yoseph opened the granaries of Egypt. In Gen. 47:13-27, we learn that Yoseph...
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Posted by Navah on Jan 4, 2025 in The Patriarchs' Saga
Yoseph was sold in Egypt as a slave. But the Elohim of his father was with him and did not abandon him as his brothers did. Now raised to the highest rank in Egypt, only second to Pharaoh himself, Yoseph could set his thought on his family in the land of Kana’an. On account of the famine that was throughout the whole land, his brothers came down to Egypt to buy grain, for grain could be found only in Egypt. Yoseph was expecting them to come for the famine was very great....
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Posted by Navah on Dec 20, 2024 in The Patriarchs' Saga
No matter how we will read the narratives of Ya’akov and Yoseph, we still will not know the entire story. And the story reads well until we start reading it carefully. Then, several questions start presenting themselves to the careful reader. And the Yoseph story begins in Genesis 37, wherein we learn that his father, Ya’akov, moved to the land of Kana’an, the land of his father, as we read, These are the generations of Ya’akov. Yoseph, being...
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Posted by Navah on Dec 10, 2024 in The Exiles, The Patriarchs' Saga
Why did the Eternal move Israel and his family from the land of Kana’an to Egypt? The reason why Israel moved to Egypt, which turned to slavery, is not explicitly stated in the Torah. Was it an exile and if so, why? We have the reason to believe that it was an exile but why? Because of the famine? In the issue of famine in the entire land, there is a common mistake made when it is asserted that it caused the relocation of Israel to Egypt, where there was plenty of food. And...
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Posted by Navah on Nov 30, 2024 in The Patriarchs' Saga
No one in his proper mind would agree that a person can wound someone else in order to save his/her own life. Then, why in a “civilized” society like ours can a pregnant woman wound her baby for the sake of “improving” her own health? Because abortion is a matter of “healthcare”, and a baby is a mere part of the mother’s body through the umbilical cord? The liberal culture claims that a fetus is not a conscious being and can...
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Posted by Navah on Nov 24, 2024 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The Eternal told Avraham to leave his homeland and to go to an unknown land he would inherit. He promised Avraham to make him a father of many nations, innumerous as the stars. But as Avraham entered the promised land, he was wandering childless for twenty-four years. Then, Avraham was promised he would have a son, only one son. A year later Yitschak the promised son was born. At the age of thirty-seven, Yitschak was still childless, not even married, when the Eternal...
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Posted by Navah on Nov 18, 2024 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The request from the Eternal to Avraham to bring up his son on the mountain and sacrifice him there comes out of nowhere. Why? For the Eternal said to him with a promise: “For it is through Yitschak that will be called your descendants” (Genesis 21:12). But then He said: “Take your son …and bring him up” (Genesis 22:2). And now it was said to Avraham: “Do not extend your hand against the lad. Do not touch him”. We wonder though! Our question concerning this is: Did the...
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Posted by Navah on Oct 10, 2024 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The young Yoseph dreamed two dreams concerning his family. In his first dream, all his brothers bowed to him. In the second dream, his father and mother, and his brothers bowed. Later in Egypt as a viceroy, he orchestrated the things in a such way that all his brothers and father would come to bow down to him. Was Yoseph trying to bring what he dreamed of to its realization? It is the object of this work to seek the answers to this question, as we will seek to clarify what...
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Posted by Navah on Jul 28, 2024 in The Patriarchs' Saga
Many translators tend to flatten out Hebrew grammatical difficulties to create a smoother translation. These difficulties are not always visible in translation. Such is the case of the translation of Genesis 15:6. There are two views as to how to translate the verse that reads, And he believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness. (Gen 15:6 JPS) According to this reading and more particularly this capitalization, Avraham believed in the Eternal and He...
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Posted by Navah on Apr 8, 2024 in The Patriarchs' Saga
Who is the author of the Letter to the Hebrews? According to the Roman Catholic tradition, Apostle Shaul (Paul) is the assumed author of the Hebrews. The ambiguity concerning the authorship of Hebrews comes from the fact that the author of Hebrews has not claimed any authorship. Hence, the Letter to the Hebrews is an anonymous work with its author unknown. In contrast, Shaul claims the authorship of his other letters, as this is evident from their epilogues, the style of...
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Posted by Navah on Jan 16, 2024 in The Patriarchs' Saga
In the narrative of Genesis, we find that Hagar was an Egyptian, a handmaid of Sarah, Avraham’s wife. We derive this from the plain reading of Genesis 16:1. However, according to the Rabbinic tradition, which is not well established, Hagar was Pharaoh’s daughter from a concubine, whom he gave as a compensation for having wronged Avram (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 26:7). Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer (Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer) is a midrash (interpretation) that retells and...
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