Basics of Judaism
- Basic Values and Morality
- Chosen People
- G-d and Torah
- Heaven and Hell
- Other Denominations
- Reward and Punishment
- Science and Torah
- Sin and Repentance
- The Messiah
- Who is a Jew?
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The Sapphires in Job
What is the meaning of the “sapphires” in Job Ch. 28? Ch. 28 in Job is contrasting precious metals and precious stones, which do occur in nature, with wisdom, which is truly hard to find (see verse 12); thus the…
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What is His Name…
What is the meaning of the verse (Prov. 30:4), "mah shemo u-mah shem beno" – "what is his name and what is his son’s name?". The Midrash on Proverbs explains each phrase of this verse as referring to a different…
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The Beauty of Holiness
What is the meaning of the “beauty of holiness” in Psalm 110? The sages interpret Ch.110 of Psalms as written in praise of Abraham. The phrase “hadrei kodesh” is interpreted in several different ways by the commentators. Rashbam says it…
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Golems
What does the Bible tell us about golems? Psalm 139:16 says “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance”; the Hebrew word for “my unformed substance” is “golmi”, which can be translated “my golem”. The sole occurrence of the word “golem”…
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Kabbalah
What is Kabbalah? In general, “Kabbalah” means “tradition”. More specifically, it refers to Jewish mysticism and esoteric teachings.
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The Trinity
Do Jews believe in the trinity? G-d has many attributes, but they aren’t separate personalities. In Christianity, Jesus was transformed from a Davidic messiah into a savior who was an incarnation of G-d. The incarnation obviously couldn’t be identical to…
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How Moses was given the Torah
How did Moses receive the written Torah? There is a difference of opinion in the Talmud (Gitin 60a) as to whether Moses was given the whole Torah at Sinai (but revealed it a little at a time as the events…
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Permanence of the Torah
Why do we no longer observe some parts of the Torah? We are certainly not allowed to do away with any part of the Law; the Torah tells us “you shall not add to it or subtract from it” (Deut.13:1).…
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The Apocrypha
What are the apocrypha? They are books, written in Second Temple times, that the Catholic churches (both Roman and Eastern) accepted as part of the Bible, but the Protestants rejected. The best known book of the apocrypha, which is quoted…