This parsha/Torah reading presents more evidence of Moses’s continuing decline as a leader, poor fellow, due to years of overwork, as well as old age. Here is the aftershock of a plague which God sent to punish the Israelite men for their succumbing to the temptations of Moabite and Midianite temptresses. Sadly, Moses is unable […]
Pinchas by David Hartley Mark
July 6, 2015 By Leave a Comment
This parsha/Torah reading presents more evidence of Moses’s continuing decline as a leader, poor fellow, due to years of overwork, as well as old age. Here is the aftershock of a plague which God sent to punish the Israelite men for their succumbing to the temptations of Moabite and Midianite temptresses. Sadly, Moses is unable […]
Haftorah of Balak: Prophet Micah, 5:6-6-8 by David Hartley Mark
June 30, 2015 By Leave a Comment
It is useful to turn from the well-known tale of Bilaam’s donkey to the life-story of the Prophet Micah, who spoke Truth to Power in his day (end of 8th Century BCE). He was a younger contemporary of First Isaiah, and lived in a small town about twenty miles southwest of Jerusalem, Moreshet Gath. Like […]
Chukat by David Hartley Mark
June 22, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Miriam and Aaron: A Dialogue in Heaven Note: This Torah Portion includes the deaths of both Miriam (related in one scant verse, Num. 20:1) and Aaron (eight verses, 20:22-29), as well as the tragedy of Moses, whom God commands to speak to a rock, which will split and bring forth water for the thirsty, quarrelsome […]
Korach by David Hartley Mark
June 15, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Royal Egyptian Army Military Dispatch: Official Eyes Only Garrison Report, Fortress #14, South-West Boundary, Kingdom of Pharaoh Merneptah, Year 1209 of the Reign of Sacred Pharaoh-Father-Ruler Merneptah-Baenre-Merynetjeru. Greetings! I, Horemheb, Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding, 57th Battalion, “Battle-Falcons,” Royal Egyptian Infantry, do submit the following Monthly Report of Our Troop Activities Guarding the South-West Boundary of Merneptah’s Sacred […]
Shlach: The Tale of the Spies by David Hartley Mark
June 9, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Scene: A tribal harvest-feast, in Canaan, c. 1380 BCE. Israelites of the tribe of Benjamin have celebrated with food, barley beer, wine, dance and song, thanking their Desert God, Adonoi, or He-Who-Is, for a bountiful harvest and large flocks of cattle, sheep and goats. The cooking-fires have died down, hearts are warm and bellies are […]
Behaalotecha: Miriam and Zipporah by David Hartley Mark
June 2, 2015 By Leave a Comment
What are we doing In this dark land with its Yellow shadows that pierce the eyes? (Every now and then someone says, even after forty Or fifty years: “The sun is killing me.”) What are we doing with these souls of mist, with these names, With our eyes of forests, with our beautiful children, With […]
Haftorah of Naso: The Prayer of Shamira, Mother of Samson by David Hartley Mark
May 26, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Author’s Note: Biblical scholar James Kugel (How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then & Now, NY: Free Press, 2007) sums up Modern Biblical Criticism by stating that the Samson story is unique in the Book of Judges. Most of the judges/tribal chieftains are charismatic leaders (Gideon, Jephtah, Deborah) whom God appears to […]
Behar-Bechukotai by David Hartley Mark
May 13, 2015 By Leave a Comment
We Jews have every reason to be proud, since we gifted Shabbat, the Holy Sabbath, to the world. Originally, Shabbatum was a gloomy day the Babylonians invented, sort of a Friday-the-Thirteenth, a bad-luck-day coming each week, during which superstitious pagans would stay at home, scared to go outside, lest something evil befall them. We took […]