Nimrod had a problem. He had planned to rid himself of the Abraham problem and his idea of One God. Abraham was thrown into a heated furnace and survived. No one could believe his or her eyes. They had witnessed a great miracle. Everyone was silent,...
Freud would have had a field day! “Whoever meets me will kill me!”(Genesis 4:14) The Sages teach that Cain was worried about Abel’s blood relatives – Go’eil Hadam – avenging his death. Abel’s avenger would have been Adam! That statement alone would have kept Cain...
Abram took his nephew Lot with him as he left Haran on his journey to unknown places and situations. That is all we know about Lot. He quickly becomes the invisible man. Where was he when Abram and company went down into Egypt? He does...
Many evil and depraved men misuse music as an excitant in order to plunge into earthly delights, instead of raising themselves by means of it to the contemplations of God and to praise His glories. (Victoria – Greatest of Spanish 16th Century composers, whose works...
[/caption]In 1509, Johannes Pfefferkorn, a Dominican monk who was also a converted rabbi, published Mirror of the Jews, an anti-Semitic book proposing that all works in Hebrew, including the Talmud, be burned. Johannes Reuchlin, a Bavarian humanist, dismayed by the possibility of such desecration, formally protested...
“Why can’t you be like other kids who behave perfectly?” is a refrain I often hear parents complaining to their children. Yes, there were and are certainly moments when I wish my children were as “perfect” as other kids, but those moments are rare. I...
They listened and they watched for over a century, but they didn’t hear or see a thing. The farmer who, according to the Sages, invented the plow, changed careers, and gave up his work to become a carpenter in order to build a huge ark....
Xenophon’s Anabasis tells the story of ten thousand Greek mercenaries who were hired under false pretences by a Persian prince, Cyrus the Younger, for an expedition into the hinterland of Asia Minor. Cyrus’ true aim was to oust his brother, Ataxerxes II. They were defeated...
He truly bore the deformity of baldness very badly, having experienced often his vulnerability to the jokes of his detractors. For that reason he was even accustomed to “recall” his thinning strands from the very top of his head, and out of all the honors...
They all speak one language. They want to celebrate and preserve their singular identity, so they decide to build a city and tower. God isn’t happy and confuses their languages, resulting in numerous societies and cultures and, of course, wars. I think of Israel in 1948...
I always wondered what happened to the leaders of the Tower of Babel project. Did their followers rise up and kill them for coming up with their disastrous idea? Were the people too busy dealing with their new realities to spend time dealing with Nimrod,...
I realized that I forgot to bring my toothpaste and was happy to have an opportunity to practice my newly acquired and limited German. I breezed through asking and actually understanding directions to the nearest pharmacy. I received some strange looks when I asked for...
Where shall I go? Shall I search for my new gadget on EBay or go on a quest in New York City, where you can find almost everything that you can find on the web, but with a greater sense of adventure? My children, when they...