Musings on the Torah

This write up attempts to bring attention to a potentially life altering idea expressed by Hagar Bereishis 16 is essentially a story about Sarai—in Canaan ten years sans children—asking Avram to take her maidservant Hagar as a surrogate through whom Sarai might mother a child (Radak to 'פסוק ב). Avram acquiesces, Hagar indeed becomes pregnant, and Sarai, feeling mistreated by her, oppresses her. Hagar, unable to bear it any longer, flees from her. She finds herself in the desert, pregnant (ibid, verse 11) and alone. An angel appears to her, and after telling her to return and that God will make her child into a great nation, instructs her to name the boy Yishmael as God has heard her pain. Hagar, overcome, proclaims (verse 13): וַתִּקְרָא שֵׁם י"י הַדֹּבֵר אֵלֶיהָ אַתָּה אֵל רֳאִי כִּי אָמְרָה הֲגַם הֲלֹם רָאִיתִי אַחֲרֵי רֹאִי. Onkelos renders it וְצַלִּיאַת בִּשְׁמָא דַּייָ דְּאִתְמַלַּל עִמַּהּ אֲמַרַת אַתְּ הוּא אֱלָהָא חָזֵי כוֹלָא אֲרֵי אֲמַרַת אַף אֲנָא שָׁרִיתִי חָזְיָ...

The following is a fascinating study in contrasts regarding the bitachon/hishtadlus spectrum Ramban (Bereishis 12:10) harshly censures Avram for going to Egypt due to the famine in Canaan and misleading the Egyptians regarding his relationship with Sarai and setting her up for sin and not trusting that HaShem would work things out to the extent that Ramban pins the entire galus mitzrayim on Avram for these actions ודע כי אברהם אבינו חטא חטא גדול בשגגה שהביא אשתו הצדקת במכשול עון מפני פחדו פן יהרגוהו, והיה לו לבטוח בשם שיציל אותו ואת אשתו ואת כל אשר לו, כי יש באלהים כח לעזור ולהציל. גם יציאתו מן הארץ, שנצטווה עליה בתחילה, מפני הרעב, עון אשר חטא, כי האלהים ברעב יפדנו ממות. ועל המעשה הזה נגזר על זרעו הגלות בארץ מצרים ביד פרעה. במקום המשפט שמה הרשע והחטא. Ralbag (ibid; who, interestingly, per Chida's shem hagedolim, was a grandson of Ramban's), on the other hand, diametrically opposes Ramban, writing that Avram acted wisely in going to mitzrayim for food and in passing off Sarai as...

This short piece attempts to provide a source for a well known halacha in the opening chapters of the Torah  The halacha is that although for krias shema kisui ervah suffices for tefilah more is required and one needs to cover ones heart as well (whatever that denotes—tb berachos 24b-25a).  Rashi there explains the rationale: צריך הוא להראות את עצמו כעומד לפני המלך.  In other words, tefilah, in contradistinction to shema, by definition involves amidah lifnei hamelech, which demands a certain comportment.  I think I have an explicit source in the Torah for this.  After eating from the forbidden fruit, Adam and his ezer (she wasn't named Chava just yet) feel themselves to be naked and fashion חֲגֹרֹת for themselves.  Chizkuni brings an alternative peshat that they were loincloths—nothing more.  Subsequently, when God comes looking for them, they hide.  When queried, Adam responds with: וַיֹּאמֶר אֶת קֹלְךָ שָׁמַעְתִּי בַּגָּן וָאִירָא כִּי עֵירֹם אָ...

This essay discusses what the Torah and it's mainstream medieval jewish interpreters have to say about creation and the age of the universe  There is a fundamental disagreement about how to render the very first word in the Torah, and by extension, the first few pesukim, with wide ranging implication.  Rashi and his grandson Rashbam interpret it as "At the beg. of God's creating heaven and earth (end of verse 1) and the earth was desolate and empty . . ".  Ramban and Radak read it as the more familiar "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth".  The ta'amim concur with the latter opinion (there is a disjunctive tipcha under "bereishis").  Rashi famously kicks off his commentary by citing a midrash to the effect that the Torah should rightfully have started with the first mitzvah and skipped all the historical drama, see there. Ramban rejects its plain reading as for Ramban it is axiomatic that God created the world, as otherwise (in an et...

This piece attempts to uncover an entirely new way of looking at the significance of Sukkos in what essentially amounts to a paradigm shift about the chag Vayikra 23:42-43 בַּסֻּכֹּת תֵּשְׁבוּ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים כׇּל הָאֶזְרָח בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשְׁבוּ בַּסֻּכֹּת. לְמַעַן יֵדְעוּ דֹרֹתֵיכֶם כִּי בַסֻּכּוֹת הוֹשַׁבְתִּי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּהוֹצִיאִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אֲנִי י"י אֱלֹהֵיכֶם. There is no other biblical record of our forefathers ever having stayed in booths, certainly not immediately after the exodus. The rishonim (ad loc) quote a disagreement (bavli sukkah 11b) between R Eliezer and R Akiva as to the identity of the pasuk's obscure referent: כי בסכות הושבתי – איזו סכות היו, ר' אליעזר אומר ענני כבוד היו, ר' עקיבא אומר, סכות ממש then saying that it works out acc to R Eliezer but acc to R Akiva what exactly are we celebrating?; see there for various solutions. The rishonim have in common an understanding that the holiday is somehow related to hitherto un...