By Michael Carasik
This is Torah Talk for the week of October 17th, 2021 Gen. 18:22 The men went on from there to Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. The Bible says Abraham remained standing before the Lord — but the Masorah...
This is Torah Talk for the week of October 10th, 2021 Gen. 15:12 As the sun was about to set [וַיְהִ֤י הַשֶּׁ֙מֶשׁ֙ לָב֔וֹא], a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him … 17 When the sun set [וַיְהִ֤י...
This is Torah Talk for the week of October 3rd, 2021 Gen. 7:11 tells us poetically: All the fountains of the great deep burst apart, And the floodgates of the sky broke open. How did Prov. 3:20 and Isa. 24:18 know...
This is Torah Talk for the week of September 26th, 2021 The first two chapters of Genesis tell the story of the creation of the world twice. How do those two stories work together in the Bible as we have it...
This is Torah Talk for the week of September 19th, 2021 Deut. 33:21 For there is the portion of the revered chieftain [מְחֹקֵ֖ק סָפ֑וּן], Where the heads of the people come [וַיֵּתֵא֙ רָ֣אשֵׁי עָ֔ם]. What is the meaning of these...
This is Torah Talk for the week of September 12th, 2021 Deut. 32:1 Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter! But … why? Scholar Mark Leuchter asks: Why is the Song...
This is Torah Talk for the week of September 5th, 2021 Deut. 31:1 Moses went and spoke these things to all Israel. 2 He said to them: I am now one hundred and twenty years old, I can no...
This is Torah Talk for the week of August 29th, 2021 Deut. 29:9 You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God—your tribal heads, your elders and your officials [רָאשֵׁיכֶ֣ם שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֗ם זִקְנֵיכֶם֙ וְשֹׁ֣טְרֵיכֶ֔ם], all the men of...
This is Torah Talk for the week of August 22nd, 2021 Deut. 28:36 The Lord will drive you, and the king you have set over you, to a nation unknown to you or your fathers, where you shall serve...
This is Torah Talk for the week of August 15th, 2021 Deut. 25:5 When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and leaves no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married to a stranger, outside the...
This is Torah Talk for the week of August 8th, 2021 Deut. 18:9 When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. 10 Let no one...
This is Torah Talk for the week of August 1st, 2021 Deut. 12:4 Do not worship the Lord your God in like manner, 5 but look only to the site that the Lord your God will choose [מָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨רהַ] amidst all your...
This is Torah Talk for the week of July 25th, 2021 Deut. 10:12 And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the Lord your God, to walk only in His paths,...
This is Torah Talk for the week of July 18th, 2021 Deut. 5:23/26 For what mortal ever heard the voice of the living God [אֱלֹהִ֨ים חַיִּ֜ים] speak out of the fire, as we did, and lived? What does the living God mean?...
This is Torah Talk for the week of July 11th, 2021 Deut. 1:41 You all girded yourselves with war gear and recklessly started [וַתָּהִ֖ינוּ לַעֲלֹ֥ת] for the hill country. What on God’s green earth does va-tahinu mean? And why does Numbers describe what the...
This is Torah Talk for the week of July 4th, 2021 Num. 34:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Instruct the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land...
This is Torah Talk for the week of June 27th, 2021 Num. 16:32 tells us that the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up all Korah’s people. But this week, in Num. 26:11, we learn: “The sons of Korah, however, did...
This is Torah Talk for the week of June 20th, 2021 Num. 22:39 Balaam went with Balak and they came to Kiriath-huzoth. 40 Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep [בָּקָ֣ר וָצֹ֑אן], and had them served to Balaam and the dignitaries with him....
This is Torah Talk for the week of June 13th, 2021 Num. 20:13 Those are the Waters of Meribah—meaning that the Israelites quarrelled with the Lord—through which He affirmed His sanctity [וַיִּקָּדֵ֖שׁ בָּֽם]. This week’s handout: 39 Hukkat 5781 Learn...
This is Torah Talk for the week of June 6th, 2021 Num. 16:13 Is it not enough that you brought us from a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, that you would also...
This is Torah Talk for the week of May 30th, 2021 Num. 15:39 That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the Lord and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart...
This is Torah Talk for the week of May 23rd, 2021 Num. 11:1 The people took to, like, complaining [וַיְהִי הָעָם כְּמִתְאֹנְנִים] bitterly before the Lord. As if! What does this verb really mean, and why were they “like” doing...
This is Torah Talk for the week of May 16th, 2021 In Numbers 5, God tells Moses, 6 When a man or woman commits any wrong toward a fellow man, thus breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, 7 he...
This is Torah Talk for the week of May 9th, 2021 • Does Numbers connect to Leviticus … or to Exodus? This week’s handout: 34 Bemidbar 5781 Learn Biblical Hebrew! Donate via Paypal! Click here for more links or to contact me...
This is Torah Talk for the week of May 2nd, 2021 Lev. 25:23 But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim [לִצְמִתֻ֔ת], for the land is Mine. It’s a bis legomenon!!! But what does it really mean, where did...
This is Torah Talk for the week of April 25th, 2021 Lev. 23:10 When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the...
This is Torah Talk for the week of April 18th, 2021 Lev. 19:4 Do not turn to idols [אַל־תִּפְנוּ֙ אֶל־הָ֣אֱלִילִ֔ים] or make molten gods for yourselves: I the Lord am your God. But what exactly is an אֱלִיל? Click here for Mark...
This is Torah Talk for the week of April 11th, 2021 Lev. 12:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be unclean seven days; she shall...
This is Torah Talk for the week of April 4th, 2021 Lev. 11:9 These you may eat of all that live in water: anything in water, whether in the seas or in the streams, that has fins and scales—these you...
This is Torah Talk for the week of March 21st, 2021 Lev. 7:34 For I have taken the breast of elevation offering and the thigh of gift offering from the Israelites, from their sacrifices of well-being, and given them to...
This is Torah Talk for the week of March 14th, 2021 Lev. 1:1 The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. But in Exod. 40:34-35 that tent in the middle of the camp is...
This is Torah Talk for the week of March 7th, 2021 Ex. 35:25 And all the skilled women [חכמת-לב] spun with their own hands, and brought what they had spun [מטוה], in blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and in fine linen. “What...
This is Torah Talk for the week of February 28th, 2021 Ex. 34:28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water; and he wrote down on the...
This is Torah Talk for the week of February 21, 2021 Ex. 28:35 [Aaron must wear a robe hemmed with bells …] so that the sound of it is heard [ונשמע קולו] when he comes into the sanctuary before the LORD and when...
This is Torah Talk for the week of February 14, 2021 Ex. 26:31 You shall make a curtain [פָרֹ֗כֶת] of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine twisted linen; it shall have a design of cherubim worked into it. It...
This is Torah Talk for the week of February 7, 2021 Ex. 21:29 If, however, that ox has been in the habit of goring, and its owner, though warned, has failed to guard it [וְלֹ֣א יִשְׁמְרֶ֔נּוּ], and it kills a...
This is Torah Talk for the week of January 31st 2021 Ex. 18:5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses’ sons and wife to him in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. But how could Moses be...
This is Torah Talk for the week of January 24th 2021 Ex. 14:1 The Lord said to Moses: 2 Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp before Pi‑hahiroth [פִּ֣י הַחִירֹ֔ת], between Migdol [מִגְדֹּ֖ל] and the sea, before Baal-zephon [בַּ֣עַל צְפֹ֔ן]; you shall...
This is Torah Talk for the week of January 17th 2021 Exod. 10:21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness...
This is Torah Talk for the week of January 10th, 2021 Ex. 6:2-3 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself...
This is Torah Talk for the week of January 3rd, 2021 Exod 1:15 The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah. What do these names mean — and why...
This is Torah Talk for the week of December 27th, 2020 Gen. 49:3 “Reuben, you are my first-born …” But was he really? Reuben is so insignificant in biblical history that scholars invent an important pre-history for him. Andrew Tobolowsky...
This is Torah Talk for the week of December 20th, 2020 Gen. 45:10 “You will dwell in the region of Goshen, where you will be near me—you and your children and your grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all that...
This is Torah Talk for the week of December 13th, 2020 Gen. 44:9 Whichever of your servants it is found with shall die; the rest of us, moreover, shall become slaves to my lord.” 10 He replied, “Although what you are proposing...
This is Torah Talk for the week of December 6th, 2020 Gen. 37:21 But when Reuben heard it, he tried to save him from them. He said [וַיֹּ֕אמֶר], “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben went on [וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֣ם ׀ רְאוּבֵן֮], “Shed no...
This is Torah Talk for the week of November 29th, 2020 Gen. 32:20 Jacob set up an altar there and called it El-elohe-yisrael. What does this name mean … and why would you name an altar? This week’s handout: 08 Vayishlach...
This is Torah Talk for the week of November 22nd, 2020 Gen. 28:18 Early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil...
Gen. 25:29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open, famished [עָיֵֽף]. 30And Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stuff to gulp down, for I am famished”—which is why he was...
This is Torah Talk for the week of November 8th, 2020 Gen. 24:19 When she had let him drink his fill, she said, “I will also draw for your camels, until they finish drinking.” Believe it or not, when these...
This is Torah Talk for the week of November 1st, 2020 Gen. 22:14 And Abraham named that site Adonai-yireh [יִרְאֶה], whence the present saying, “On the mount of the Lord there is vision [יֵרָאֶֽה].” The Hebrew words seem to...