The Chumash (Five Books of Moses)
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Skin of the Tachash
At least 6 times, G-d calls for the covering of the sacred parts of the Tabernacle (see Exodus 25) “with the skin of the dolphin.” Why the dolphin? I assume that you have read some translation of the Torah that…
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Abraham Serves Milk and Meat
Abraham offers the three angels on their way to Sodom refreshment of milk and a “young calf without blemish”…. how would this have been done without compromising the kosher rules of not consuming meat and dairy at one sitting? First…
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Alligators and Hebrew Translation
I just found a strange translation for something in Genesis 1:21 – it translates “Taninim” as “sea cretures” or “sea monsters” or even ” whales”. I couldn’t find even one translation that called them alligators or crocodiles as this is…
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Genetic Infertility in Abraham’s Family
I’ve researched the Terah – Abraham genealogy and I see evidence of a hereditary transmission in this family of a peculiar Infertility/Twinning syndrome. Recent data about a similar syndrome appears in contemporary genetic literature. My question is does it make…
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Noah’s Children
Who were Noah’s children? Did he have any? How did the world become populated after the flood (he only took animals on the ark, right? – not a wife or kids or anything?)? I’m having trouble constructing genealogy of Judaism.…
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Infinite G-d & Finite World
If G-d’s light is eternal how can it be that in the first words of the Torah it says “in the beginning” ? Hi! Thank you for your fascinating question. I have to tell you that these kinds of issues…
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Oldest Torah Manuscript
How old is the oldest surviving Torah manuscript? I’m not sure if this is actually the oldest (and, to be precise, it’s not complete as parts of it were destroyed in a Syrian Pogrom in the 1940s), but a top…
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Testing G-d
In Numbers 14:22 it states our ancestors tested G-d ten times before the incident under discussion. What are those ten tests? Were the people testing G-d or does it mean they were failing His tests? Thank you for your very…
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Borders of the Promised Land
G-d promised Abraham that everywhere he set his foot, it would be land given him for his people, the Jews. I have heard that this goes from Ur of the Chaldees (Saudi Arabia) up to Lebanon, into Egypt. The exception…