…question has been adapted from Torah IQ by David Woolf, a collection of 1500 Torah riddles, available worldwide on Amazon. For the answer, please head to the Education Companion section (directly below, in grey). Educational Companion Torah Trivia: this week’s answer Moshe bows to Yitro in this week’s parsha (see Shemot 18:7). Avraham bowed to the three angels, thinking they…
…in the morning, and a second in the afternoon” (Shemot 29:39) – or, as we might say nowadays, Shacharit, Minchah, and Maariv. In a word: routine. In the end it was agreed that Ben Pazzi was correct. The meaning of Ben Pazzi’s statement is clear: all the high ideals suggested in the verses chosen by the other Sages – the…
…This is what you were born to do. There are many such calls in Tanach. There was the call Abraham heard to leave his land and family (Bereishit 12:1). There was the call to Moshe at the Burning Bush (Shemot 3:4). There was the one experienced by Yeshayahu when he saw, in a mystical vision, God enthroned and surrounded by…
…the parshiyot of Tazria and Metzora. It was, they said, a punishment rather than a medical condition. Their interpretation was based on the stories found in the Torah itself. Moshe’s hand became temporarily white with tzara’at when he expressed doubt about the willingness of the people to believe in his mission (Shemot 4:6-7). Miriam was struck by tzara’at when she…
…festivals in the Torah. Unlike the Shemot and Devarim passages, this chapter includes Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Shabbat in the list of the festivals. Strangely, the Torah here seems to be calling Shabbat both a moed, an appointed time, and a mikra kodesh, a sacred assembly, which it does nowhere else. The list of the chaggim in Vayikra emphasises…
…the Israelites in terms of family. He tells Moshe to say to Pharaoh in His name: “My child, My firstborn, Yisrael” (Shemot 4:22). When Moshe wants to explain to Bnai Yisrael why they have a duty to be holy, He says, “You are children of the Lord your God” (Devarim 14:1). If God is our Parent, then we are all…
…It is possible to neglect these duties. In extreme circumstances it is even possible for a monarch to abdicate. But no one can choose to be heir to a throne. That is a fate, a destiny, that comes with birth. The people of whom God Himself said, “My child, My firstborn, Israel” (Shemot 4:22) knows itself to be royalty. That…
…to respond in deed. This was one of the key elements in the Sinai covenant, when the Israelites, having already said twice, “All that God says, we will do,” then said, “All that God says, we will do and we will hear [venishma]” (Shemot 24:7). It is the nishma – listening, hearing, heeding, responding – that is the key religious…
…wrong, and though God sends water from a rock, He also sentences Moshe to an almost unbearable punishment: “You shall not bring this assembly into the land I have given you.” Bamidbar 20:12 It is puzzling why he lost control at that moment. He had faced the same problem before (in Shemot chapters 15 and 17), but Moshe had never…
…been in Shemot, or on sacrifices as it was in Vayikra, but rather on the laws in their social context. He spoke about justice, care for the poor, consideration for employees, and love for the stranger. He set out the fundamentals of Jewish faith in a more systematic way than in any other book of Tanach. He told them of…