I’m in the process of uploading my podcasts to YouTube.
This is the latest upload.
A discussion of scriptural references to Arameans in the Passover Seder and their connection to Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Esau.
I focus specifically on the verse in Deuteronomy דברים 26:10 :
Either:
“My father was a wandering Aramean”
Or
“An Aramean oppressed my father”.
Which translation do you favor?
Leave a comment and tell me.
It is believed that the Herodion Temple Mount took much longer to build than Herod actually lived for. Consider how long it must have took to even build the machinery and work out the engineering to build the entire massive structure.
The Temple Mount had 140,000 square meters surface area. The Western Wall is 488 meters in length alone. The largest stone is well over 280 tonnes (some say 570 tonnes). According to the Christian Scripture it took more than 46 years to build (John 2:20).
It is highly likely that , not unlike this blog, there were many starts and stops!
Stay tuned for more interesting and entertaining blogs, podcasts and videos!
This week’s reading of the Prophets (Hafarah) is from the Book of Jeremiah. It is part of a series of Haftarot leading up to the ninth of Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples and subsequent Diaspora of the Jews. In it God speaks to him telling him that “From the North Shall spout forth Evil”.
Historically Jerusalem was invaded from the North. In the period of history before, when Isaiah was prophesying, Sennacharib, the King of Assyria invaded (unsuccessfully) from the North. During Jeremiah’s time Nebuchadnezzar conquered from the North, as did the Romans and when the Crusaders invaded Israel they came from Lebanon and Syria. In recent history, in 1948, the Jordanians shelled the City from the North and East. Though, counter to our rule, the Israeli paratroopers, in 1967, entered the Lions Gate in the North to conquer the Old City. Seemingly most conquests Jerusalem come from the North.
In tactical terms we can say that conquests typically come from the North because that is where the highest ground is; from the Mount of Olives and Mount Scopus. However there is a more spiritual reason to do with the meaning of the word North. In Hebrew North is:
As we learnt in the Torah Portion of Balak, words in Hebrew have ‘root’ letters which tell us about their meaning. We can make a number of words from the root letters of Zafon:
A Zofe in Hebrew is a scout.
Lizpot is to forsee
Mazpen is a compass
Mazpun is a conscience
The word North is to do with looking forward, forseeing and looking with an agenda in mind.
Not all looking with an intent is negative, without an ability to foresee certain actions and their moral consequences we would not have a conscience. There is a type of prophecy that is always negative, this is the type that is common amongst people with depression. It consists of statements such as:
‘I always make mistake X’
‘I will never succeed
‘This type of thing is always happening to me.’
These over generalisations plague our speech and harm our lives, and become true, not by virtue of an innate truth of these statements, but by the belief of the person stating them.
It was God that told Jeremiah to look North, normally it would have been a really bad idea to make such a negative prophecy. In fact if we look at the text it took two prophecies, one with a almond tree stick and the other more disturbing image of a bubbling cauldron. Surely one warning was enough?
The lesson that we learn by the doubling of the prophecy and the harshness of the imagery is that it was not a normal matter, rather it excels in abnormality. The prophecy is the exception that proves the rule:
that a person should not become the prophet of his own downfall.
“And he looked out onto the Yeshimon (wilderness)”
(Bamidbar / Numbers 21:20)
This weeks portion discusses Balaam’s unsuccessful cursing of the Children of Israel at the behest of King Balak. There is a scene where he is looking out onto the wilderness or ‘Yeshimon’ in hebrew.
The Bible mentions 4 types of arid terrain which are many times confused under the same heading ‘desert’, these are:
Midbar
Negev
Arava
Yeshimon
A Midbar, IS NOT a real desert. In hebrew, words have root letters the root letters connected to other words with the same root letters.. The family of root letters ‘d’ ‘b’ ‘r’ are to do with grazing or raising flocks. In a few places; in the book of Micah and Isaiah, the word ‘Dover’is used, meaning to graze cattle. Midbar is an a arid terrain which cannot sustain crops but can sustain flocks for part of the year. The picture above is Wadi Kelt in Midbar Yehuda; the Judean (for want of a better word) desert.
Negev means both South and desert its root letters are associated with being dry, Naguv means dried up. Negev is true desert, the area south of Beer Sheva is all desert.
Arava, means East and also is to do with mixing things. An Eruv is a mixture of things. The Arava area is a valley in the south of the Country which has a subterranean water supply. It is also a ‘mixture’ in terms of being the place where the red mountains of Moab (modern day Jordan) meet the land of Israel.
Yeshimon is just a waste. Its root letters ‘sh’ and ‘m’ appear in the word ‘shamam’ meaning waste. In fact it is used in the first usage of the phrase ‘howling waste’ in Deuteronomy 32:10. In our portion in represents what Balak and Balam wished to find; a wasted nation devoid of hope and purpose, instead they found a great nation and were forced to bless them.
In this week’s portion we have the story of the rebellion of Korach where Korach’s leadership was called into question. The Eternal set a ‘competition’ between all the tribes to proves Aaron’s right to the Priesthood. They were all to take staffs and write their names on them and place them in front of the ‘Tent of Meeting’, all the staffs remained the same except for Aaron’s which sprouted almond blossoms.
The significance of almond blossoms is understood by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (an 11th century Torah scholar) as being a sign of promptness, he says that ‘ with one who objects to the priesthood, his calamities shall be prompt to come’.
The image of the almond is synonymous with judgement. I carry out the following experiment;
I found a wild almond tree that had produced fruit, it was easy to find as the almond tree is indigenous to Israel and a common site to see when walking in the forests and hills of Israel. I tried to open the fruit, but the nut was so tough it took a good whack with a rock. The effort was not that worth it, you got a tiny fruit, yet the taste was really bizarre. I’m used to the kind of almond that you get in the supermarket, the taste was really strong, really bitter and kind of sweet at the same time.
The message that I take from this is that the almond is a symbol of divine judgement, what is called in Hebrew, Din. Din is strong and powerful, like the taste of the almond and strength of its shell. Yet it is meant for the betterment of humanity, symbolized by the flowers of the almond and its sweetness.
When I used to think of the word ‘Negev’, I would think of it meaning ‘South’ or ‘Desert’. I never used to think of it as being something that one ‘goes up to’. In fact from my vantage point in Jerusalem today, I very much descend in altitude to the Negev.
However if we look at the topographic map pictured above, we can clearly see (as indicated by the orange and red colours signifying altitude) that if I was coming from Paran, which is part of the central valley system (running down the centre of the map in green and blue signifying a lower area) I would certainly be rising in altitude. In fact the whole Negev system, which is the southern part of the map from Beersheva to the Jordan and Arava valley running down the middle, is a highland.
But this phrase is not just talking about a rise in altitude, but also a ride in spirituality. A rise in the spiritual depths of wandering the Desert to the heights of the Holy Land. This phrase was also used by Ben Gurion in his attempts to settle the Negev, he told the people;
‘Go up to this Negev!’
‘And this was the deed of the Menorah beaten out of Gold, from its base to its flowering it was beaten out, just as the Eternal revealed to Moses in a vision’. (Bamidbar / Numbers 8:4)
Why did Moses need to be illustrated the method of building the Menorah or Candelabra in a vision, why could n’t he just have it shown to him?
The making of the Menorah is described earlier in the Bible, it was supposed to be made of pure Gold and beaten out of one piece of metal. This involves two impossibilities:
Firstly if the Menorah was made of pure gold, it would not keep its shape. Most gold is mixed with an impurity so that it will keep its shape, gold is normally fairly soft. This is why we have the karat system, which is a system of grading the impurities in the gold.
Secondly, how could it be beaten out of one piece of gold, this is metallurgically impossible. It can be molded out of one piece, or many pieces could be beaten and then stuck together, but to get one massive lump of gold and beat out an intricate item would be impossible.
This is why Moses required a vision, because the making of the Candelabra or Menorah was a miracle and only the Eternal could show him how to do it. The Menorah in the picture above is the Menorah that belongs to the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, it stands next to the steps to the Western Wall Plaza. To illustrate this point, it was made of a high quality of gold (but not pure gold) and was formed by a chemical / electrical process called electrolysis.
(Leviticus 14:8)
This weeks and last weeks Portion of the Torah focused on the concept of Purity in Jewish Law. Unfortunately in the modern world we don’t have much of an idea of what ‘Purity’ means. Most people will be familiar with Christian concepts of Original Sin, which connects impurity to sexual acts and women. This could n’t be further from what Purity is in Judaism. The verse above uses the phrase; ‘he shall bathe himself’, the Rabbis took this mean bathe in a Mikveh, a ritual bath. On a Tour of ancient sites in Israel one can see many ritual baths, but what is their significance, how do they ‘purify’ a person?
Purity in Judaism
According to the Mishnah, the source of most Impurity is Death. Rabbi Soloveitchik in his work ‘Halachic Man’ explained that the source of impurity in death is the inability to carry out mitzvoth (Commandments), one cannot fulfil one’s purpose which is to serve the Holy One. Our purpose in this world is to connect to the Eternal through the application of Mitzvoth. Here are some examples of states of ‘impurity’:
1. When a woman gives birth she moves from a completely pure status of containing life within her to having that life removed from her. Even though this is not death, we understand that it is in fact the beginning of a life. However it is akin to death because for nine months there were in fact two lives in one body, now that there has been a birth the lady’s body undergoes a ‘change in status’. A life has been removed from her body so to speak. This is why it was explained in last weeks reading that a woman is impure for a certain period of time.
2. The Leprosy described in this weeks reading is a spiritual disease, with no connections to Hanson’s disease (what used to be called leprosy). This disease came about due to certain impure actions, one of which was malicious gossip. Malicious gossip was considered by the Rabbis to be akin to murder, some call it ‘character assassination’. The loss of reputation can be a form of death to many people and certainly impurifies the person who caused it.
Yet impurity itself is not a moral status rather an indicator of a spiritual status.
3. We would not normally say that a person who touches a vole or a lizard is an evil person, yet if a priest were to touch such a creature he would have to immerse himself in a ritual bath. He would do this, not because of an inherent evil in such things but because he came in contact with a forbidden animal, a creature that had no immediate connection with mitzvoth; they cannot be eaten and thus no blessing can be said over them. As there is no way of bringing such an action into divine service it becomes impure and the person must cleanse themselves.
In all the examples of impurity above their is a connection to either death or the inability to carry out a mitzvah, the examples of child birth and leprosy, are examples of contact with things ‘akin to death’ and the forbidden creature is an example of the loss of potential for the carrying out of mitzvoth.
What is a Mikveh ?
A Mikveh is a body of ‘living water’ 40 seahs deep. By a body we don’t just mean any man made ‘ritual bath’ but also oceans and streams. ‘Living water’ connotes water from a natural source. (40 seahs is about 144 eggs worth of water – 14.3 litres).
Living water is a symbol of Torah, of the Eternal’s teaching and of our connection to the divine. It makes sense that when a person changes their spiritual status that this can be rectified by this symbol of the Divine Law. In our time a mikveh is only used for conversion, women during their menstral cycle, for purifying utensils and for men who wish to connect with this symbolism.
This is an example of an ancient Mikveh from Herodion:
Herodion, Herod's Palace South of Jerusalem contains a Mikveh.
A connection with the Divine
The concept of Purity is a method of describing the person’s connection with the divine, it is not necessarily a description of moral sanction. The symbol of the Mikveh, the bath of ‘living water’ is a parable for the divine connection to the Jewish People.
As it says in the last chapter and clause in the Mishnah of Yoma:
‘Rabbi Akiva said: ‘Happy are you Israel, and it is said; ‘God is the Mikveh of Israel’, Just as a mikveh purifies the impure so too The Holy One Blessed Be He purifies Israel.’
Portion of the Week: Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26)
‘ואם מין העוף עולה קרבנו לה”
“והקריב מן התורים ומין בני יונה את קרבנו
“If he is to bring an offering that is to be eaten to the Eternal then he shall bring it from the ‘Torim’ Doves and from the Doves”
This week’s portion fits in very well with the official start of my blog, for it is the official start of a new reading of a book of the Pentateuch; ‘Vayikra’ (Leviticus: the Laws of Priesthood or in Hebrew ‘He Called’). It also contains a very important concept to Jews; Peace.
The quote above is dealing with the laws concerning a person who wishes to offer a bird as an offering to the Eternal one. According to this verse, one can only offer either a Dove or a Rock pigeon. But this is very confusing as any decent bird watcher will instantly tell you; Rock pigeons (the Grand Daddy of our City Pigeons) are a type of Dove.
Why can’t you just say; ‘bring me your Doves !’ or some thing like that?
Also, why Doves? Why can’t you bring chicken? Most good Jews eat chicken (apart from vegetarians, I’m a veggie too, I was upset by the lack of a tofu sacrifice, but that’s a discussion for another time). There is a special significance to this choice of bird.
Most commandments are connected to the reality of the situation of the Children of Israel or the reality that they would face in the Holyland. There are 4 main kinds of Dove that visit Israel, the first was captured on camera by a friend:
The Rock Dove / Pigeon
(picture courtesy of Remi Rauh)
The Collared Dove
The Turtle Dove
Laughing Dove
All of the four fit into the general category ‘Dove’ or ‘Yonah’, the first three, according to scripture, can be categorised as ‘Tor’ in Hebrew, what I have called “‘Torim’ Doves”, the last is part of the Global Category of Doves and Pigeons (see ‘Daat Mikra’ published by Mosad HaRav Kook on this verse who names the first three categories). The first of the three the Rock Dove or Columbia Livia in Latin were commonly used in the ancient Middle East as farmed edible foul. It was very common to have a Columbarium (an underground cave with niches for the housing of doves, now means a mausoleum but originally came from the word ‘Columba’ in Latin meaning Dove) attached to a house as part of the family’s food supply. The picture below was taken in the ruins of a large settlement outside Jerusalem called Maresha, which contains a vast number of underground Columbaria including this massive one which also became a Church and later on a Mosque.
(Columbarium of Beit Guvrin courtesy of Remi Rauh)
It is even suggested that before their domestication it was fairly easy to catch a dove and these are the kind that frequented Israel. So the text is telling us, ‘bring an offering from the ‘Torim’ these are the easiest to find, if not buy a ‘Dove’, it gives us the easiest option first as the more preferable one. This sacrifice is to do with Hesed ; loving-kindness to the person bringing the sacrifice, that it should be a service to the Eternal which is easy to accomplish.
There is a much deeper reason why the Dove is used at all. The Dove is first mentioned in connection with Noah, it is the Dove that heralded the end of the flood and became for eternity the international symbol of Peace. The Great Rabbis said;
‘It is better to be one of the pursuers than one of the pursued and there is none pursued more than the ‘Torim’ Dove and the Dove’ (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Baba Kama 93 side A, quoting Rabbi Abahu).
This has a dual meaning, firstly it is a message to be essentially a peaceful person (I do n’t think it means get yourself killed, anybody who has tried to trap birds knows that they certainly struggle and if you want proof I’ll happily take you to a Dove ringing at one of the many Bird Survey centres in Israel and prove this to you). Secondly it means to be a person who is at peace with the service of the eternal, it is evident from the many columbarium in the environs of Jerusalem that they were the most common thing to be sacrificed at the temple, the easiest thing for a person to get hold of to serve the Holy One. The message we are given is that we should ourselves be resigned in peace to divine service both with ourselves and with others.
