The Chumash (Five Books of Moses)
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Law and revelation
How do differing concepts of revelation affect the process of decision-making in Jewish law? Until very recently, there was only one concept of revelation and that was as stated in the Torah–namely, that between two and three million people witnessed…
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Torah Punctuation
IN THE TORAH, WHAT DO THE LETTERS (P) OR (S) BETWEEN BRACKETS AT THE END OF SOME VERSICLES MEAN? Like in: ט וַיְדַבֵּר מֹש×?ֶה כֵּן, ×?ֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָ×?ֵל; וְלֹ×? ש×?ָמְעוּ, ×?ֶל- {פ} מֹש×?ֶה, מִקֹּצֶר רוּחַ, וּמֵעֲבֹדָה קָש×?ָה. {פ} The Torah is…
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Hell and Satan
Is Satan mentioned in the Torah? And do we as Jews believe in satan/hell? Answer: Satan is mentioned in the Bible, see the first few chapters of Job (and a few other places). However, it’s clear in the verses I…
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Moses’s name
We are taught that Moses was named by Pharoh’s daughter from the Egyptian word Moses meaning draw from the water. Are we ever told of the Hebrew name given by Yocheved when he was born? Answer: We are told that…
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Who did Jacob’s son’s marry?
Who did Jacob’s son’s marry (beside Joseph when the Torah tells us)? The Cannanities were looked down upon and were to be strongly avoided in the case of Isaac and Jacob. After Jacob’s encounter with Laban, I don’t think he…
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Two Pharoahs
Is Pharoah the same Pharoah that raised Moses? According to the strict interpretation of the verse “And Pharoah died” stated in Parshat Shemot, Moshe was dealing with a new Pharoah and not the one that raised him. Rashi does bring…
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Torah Numbers in Base 10
Why are numbers in the Torah (= in Biblical Hebrew) in base ten? (I.e., why are they represented in multiples of ten, like 127, one times ten squared plus two times ten plus seven, rather than calling that same number…
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Interpreting the Book of Genesis
How are the Jews taught to interpret Genesis? Literally? Figuratively? Thank you. Shalom, That happens to be a very important question. The Torah is an outline, and there is a vast amount of information which supplements the outline for proper…
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Torah Verbiage
I recently had a conversation with someone who said that if the Torah would be given today that Hashem would not have used certain words such as slaves as that concept doesn’t really exist today. I think he might have…