Torah Study Date Saturday, December 24, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 49:27-49:28 Next Session Saturday, January 7, 2023 Starting at Genesis 49:29 We had an excellent visiting speaker last session, Dr. Ignacio Montoya, Sinai member and linguist in UNR’s Department of English. His main topic was gender in ancient Hebrew. We learned many things including […]
Raiders, Bread, a Hind and a Bough or Wild Ass: Jacob Describes Gad, Asher, Naphtali and Joseph
Torah Study Date Saturday, December 10, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 49:19-26 Next Session Saturday, December 17, 2022 Starting at Genesis 49:27 Last week we discussed Jacob’s descriptions of Gad, Asher, Naphtali, and Joseph. We noted the stylistic element of alliteration (repetition of a sound) in the description of Gad (gad yegud yegudenu v’hu yagud […]
Dan Judges and Issachar Creates a Land of Rest and Peace
Torah Study Date Saturday, December 3, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 49:14-18 Next Session Saturday, February 10, 2022 Starting at Genesis 49:19 Last week we discussed Jacob’s poetic predictions about Issachar and Dan. We were impressed by the description of Issachar as a strong ass who, laying down among the hearths, saw that peace was […]
Jacob Discusses Judah and Zebulon
Torah Study Date Saturday, November 26, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 49:8-13 Next Session Saturday, December 3, 2022 Starting at Genesis 49:14 Last week we discussed the a b a chiasmus of the parallels a-your brothers/a’-your father’s sons, a-will praise/a’-will bow down to with b-your hand/will be on the nape of your foes in the […]
Jacob Foretells the Future: Reuben, Simeon, Levi
Torah Study Date Saturday, November 19, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) Genesis 49:2-7 Next Session Saturday, November 26, 2022 Starting at Genesis 49:8 Last week we discussed R. Sara’s question about whether Genesis 49:2 is part of the poem or not and concluded that it is since it displays parallelism of meaning (assemble and listen/listen, […]
Poetry Lesson
Torah Study Date Saturday, November 12, 2022 Verses Covered NONE Next Session Saturday, November 19, 2022 Starting at Genesis 49:3 Last week, we learned from Rabbi Sara that there are three basic elements of Hebrew poetry, colon (the most basic unit—also called a monocolon), line (a grouping of cola, for example, a bicolon) and strophe […]
Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Menassah 2
Torah Study Date Saturday, October 29, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 48:15-49:2 Next Session Saturday, November 12, 2022 Starting at Genesis 49:3 Last week we discussed Jacob blessing Joseph and wondered why it does not seem that he blesses Joseph but only blesses Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Menassah (could this show that this event just […]
Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh
Torah Study Date Saturday, October 22, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 48:3-14 Next Session Saturday, February 19, 2022 Starting at Genesis 48:15 Last week we discussed Jacob saying that El Shaddai appeared to him in Luz in Canaan, blessed him, and said he would make him fruitful, multiply him and make him into a community […]
Joseph Swears to Jacob
Torah Study Date Saturday, October 15, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 47:29-48:2 Next Session Saturday, October 22, 2022 Starting at Genesis 48:3 Last week we discussed Jacob, in his hundred forty-seventh year (his seventeenth and final year in Egypt), telling Joseph to put his hand under Jacob’s thigh and practice kindness and faithfulness by not […]
Joseph Makes Egyptians Sharecroppers
Torah Study Date Saturday, October 1, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 47:17-47:27 Next Session Saturday, October 22, 2022 Starting at Genesis 47:28 Last session, we discussed Joseph exchanging bread for livestock, when the Egyptians lacked bread due to the famine, and then turning the Egyptians into serfs, when they had nothing left to offer but […]