Torah Talk

This is Torah Talk for the week of August 4th, 2019 How do you say 11 in Biblical Hebrew?  (And why it matters.) This week’s handout: 44 Devarim 5779 Donate: https://www.paypal.me/mcarasik Learn Biblical Hebrew: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/biblical-hebrew-learning-a-sacred-language.html    

This is Torah Talk for the week of July 7th, 2019 What is “Waheb” … and why does it have the letters את in front of it?  Ed Greenstein and “Signs of Poetry Past” have the answer. This week’s handout: 39 Hukkat 5779 Donate: https://www.paypal.me/mcarasik Learn Biblical Hebrew: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/biblical-hebrew-learning-a-sacred-language.html    

The Israelites are given a promise that goes to only one other person in the Bible — but who? Torah Talk for the week of May 26th, 2019 Lev 26:9  I will look with favor upon you, and make you fertile [והפריתי אתכם] and multiply you [והרביתי אתכם]; and I will maintain My covenant with […]

What was “parched grain” and what does it taste like? Torah Talk for the week of May 12th, 2019 Lev 20:14    Until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God, you shall eat no bread or parched grain [קלי] or fresh ears; it is a law for all time throughout the […]

Why is the prohibition of offering your children to Molech repeated in Leviticus 20? Torah Talk for the week of May 5th, 2019 Lev 20:2          Anyone among the Israelites, or among the strangers residing in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech [אשר יתן מזרעו למולך],shall be put to […]

Why does the priest smear blood on the leper’s ear, thumb, and toe? Torah Talk for the week of April 7th, 2019 Lev 14:14    The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the ridge of the right ear of him who is being […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of March 24th, 2019 Lev 9:1       On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel. 2 He said to Aaron: “Take a calf of the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and bring […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of February 17th, 2019 Exod 30:11  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 12  When you take a census of the Israelite people … But … why is this commandment given here?  And what is it interrupting in ch. 30 as a whole? This week’s handout: 21 Ki Tisa […]

This is Torah Talk for the week of February 3rd, 2019 Exod. 25:16   And deposit in the Ark [the tablets of] the Pact [העדות] which I will give you. What is an edut [עדות], and why did God want them put in the Ark? This week’s handout:  19 Terumah 5779 Donate: https://www.paypal.me/mcarasik Learn Biblical Hebrew:https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/biblical-hebrew-learning-a-sacred-language.html

This is Torah Talk for the week of January 6th, 2019 Exod. 12:8 They shall eat the flesh that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs … 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, […]