Posted by Navah on Mar 19, 2023 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The proper form of sexuality is the source of life, and nothing is more intimate than the sexual act between a husband and a wife. When the intimacy between a husband and a wife is abused or misused, nothing can be more destructive to the human soul, family, and society than the degradation of a wife in the abomination of sexual immorality of polygamy: the society will break too, sooner or later. It is inevitable. Adultery and fornication of both man and woman are seen as...
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Posted by Navah on Dec 4, 2022 in The Patriarchs' Saga
Did Ya’akov hate his wife, Leah? It appears so, when we read the verse which clearly says that YHVH saw that Leah was hated. But was she indeed hated by her husband Ya’akov? For the purpose of this study, we will focus on a single verse in Genesis 29 which indeed says that Leah was hated. In the following, however, we will argue that Ya’akov did not hate Leah, on the contrary, he loved her. By this we will not question the credibility of the Torah, let it...
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Posted by Navah on Nov 20, 2022 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The Hebrew Bible has the miraculous stories of six barren women, their conception, and giving birth to male children. We will address them in the following vein and offer another one for the reader’s consideration, as we will explain the reason for this in due course. There is a well-established Rabbinic tradition that the conception of Yitschak the son of Avraham was entirely by way of promise, not natural. His miraculous conception and birth, however, are not unique to...
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Posted by Navah on Oct 16, 2022 in The Patriarchs' Saga
Much is known of the involvement of the tribe of Levi in the Temple service and reverence for YHVH. Traditional commentators offer extended explanations of the Levites’ role in the Temple, but very little of Binyamin and the sanctuary. In the following, we would like to posit another way to look at the youngest son of the patriarch, Binyamin, and specifically in reference to his merit to have the Temple built on the land of his tribe. We will explore the connection of...
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Posted by Navah on Nov 28, 2021 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The patriarch Ya’akov had now entered upon his father’s inheritance after his return from Mesopotamia, and the narrator of our story felt the necessity to begin with the genealogy of Ya’akov telling us know that his son Yoseph was seventeen years old. This strange beginning of the narrative with Ya’akov’s favorite son and especially with the notice of his age is introduced here with reference to the principal topic in the story: the sale of...
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Posted by Navah on Nov 22, 2021 in The Patriarchs' Saga
Great Britain governed Palestine from 1922 until 1947. Since 1922, Jewish immigration to Palestine had increased, and therefore the tensions between Arabs and Jews to become the most contested piece of land. While the European Jewry and the Jews in Palestine supported the war against the Nazi Germany and even participated in it, the Arabs openly lined up with Hitler and more particularly for the extermination of all Jews in Palestine. At that time, the term...
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Posted by Navah on Nov 14, 2021 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The inheritance tensions were central to the development of Israel as a nation. First, we witnessed Avraham’s concerns that he would remain childless and his trusted servant Eliezer would inherit him, despite the Covenant YHVH made with Avraham. Then, the strife between Avraham’s wife Sarah and her maidservant: Who would be the matriarch of the family, and who would inherit Avraham: Ishmael or Yitschak. By sending away Ishmael, Sarah secured the line of...
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Posted by Navah on Nov 8, 2021 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The motive of a mother advocating on behalf of her son is found in two biblical stories of the matriarchs of the nation of Israel. After Yitschak was molested by Ishmael, Sarah urged Avraham to send Hagar away along with her son, so only her son Yitschak would inherit, according to the promise. After Sarah’s ultimatum that Hagar and her son be expelled, Avraham became grieved, but YHVH advised him to listen to his wife. Rivkah, the new matriarch of the family, too...
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Posted by Navah on Oct 31, 2021 in The Patriarchs' Saga
The story of offering Yitschak as a human sacrifice is perhaps the most discussed part of the entire Scripture. Avraham had longed to have a son such as Yitzchak for twenty-five years. When he was finally born, his love for him must have grown from year to year. But when he was suddenly commanded to sacrifice his son with his own hands, he must have felt in a state of uncertainty. And who would not have? But Avraham did not hesitate or challenge the command or even ask for...
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Posted by Navah on Oct 23, 2021 in The Patriarchs' Saga
Ishmael and Israel are the sons of Avraham and the founding fathers of two great nations. Each of them fathered twelve sons, who became the backbones of two peoples: Arabs and Israelites. While Ishmael and Israel took two quite different and even opposite turns in their development as nations, they share some common traits. As sons of the common ancestor Avraham, they have much in common. Both nations are regarded as Semites, the descendants of Shem son of Noach, and as...
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Posted by Navah on Oct 18, 2021 in The Patriarchs' Saga
Readiness to do the will of the Most High and patience in the endurance of doing it are virtues of faith that have been intentionally or negligently left out. In this introduction to Readiness and Patience as Virtues of Faith we would like to clarify certain ideas that have not been entertained at all or too little, and whose depths have not been perceived. In order to clarify this issue in its entirety, we must initially make some inquiries about two colossal minds in the...
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Posted by Navah on Jan 27, 2021 in The Appointed Times of YHVH, The Patriarchs' Saga
According to the tradition, Avraham celebrated Passover with an unleavened bread. While the term Peisach, Passover, was first used for the Passover lambs slaughtered by the Israelites in Egypt, Avraham did celebrate a feast, in which he ate an unleavened bread, hundreds of years before the Festival of the Unleavened Bread was even constituted at Sinai. So, was the law of Passover and the Festival of the Unleavened Bread given to Avraham, before it was given to Israel in...
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