We concluded, The Plan: What’s Next with ‘God demonstrates this very lesson to the magicians themselves. “You may be able to play with nature and secret powers, but you must begin by mastering yourselves or you will collapse.” The people of Egypt understand this, as does Moshe, as...
In, “The Plan: Introduction To Exodus,” we asked, Why were Ten Plagues necessary to free the Children of Israel from Egypt? Why did Pharaoh need to be so thoroughly manipulated? Why did the magicians play such an important role? Why did the average Egyptian citizen have to suffer? Why were...
There is another type of Missing Conversation; the secret conversations, the coded conversations overheard by the Sages when they read a verse, conversation, we usually miss: Missing Words: Code Word: Pakod ‘Go, and gather the elders of Yisra᾽el together, and say to them, “The Lord God of your...
I have long believed that long and open conversations of the Pesach Seder to be some sort of making up for the Missing Conversations. Moshe and Aharon got off to a great start: “And Moshe and Aharon went and gathered together all the elders of the children...
There are spaces still to be filled before the map is completed- though these days it’s only in the explored territories that men write, sadly, Here lives monsters (Norman McCraig, Old Maps and New The Isles of the Blessed, Kibu, Hawaiki, Hufaidh, Thule, Fusang, Bermeja, Onaseuse, imaginary lands all, existed on maps,...
“The Law is harsh, but it is the Law!” Not our law. Not Halacha. “Her ways are pleasant ways, And all her paths, peaceful (Proverbs 3:17 - sefaria.org).” ‘Abaye objected: Aren’t the halakhot of the entire Torah also given on account of the ways of peace, as it is...
Please Note: I try to add a link to every reference. I have yet to figure out how to make it obvious, but until I do (meaning until Debbie shows me how), just click on a title mentioned and you will find the link. Thank you for...
In the Aeneid, the Roman poet Virgil describes the vast cave inhabited by the god Vulcan and his worker-drones, the Cyclopes. It is here, Virgil defines the lightning bolt of Jupiter as informatum – forged or given shape beneath their hammers. To in-form meant to give a...
The director Fred Schepisi tells a story about the time he invited an oral surgeon to his film class. Dimming the lights, the man tacked to the wall a group of backlit X-rays, different shots of the same mouth, which anyone could see, even in these...
There is a custom to cover the mirrors in a Shiva house. The only internal images I had of me were formed by many childhood pictures kept by Aviva that my sisters sitting Shiva in Baltimore were texting. By the second day of Shiva, my internal image...
The ability to transcend the desire of the Nefesh into the reality of the Neshama by way of the Ruach (clear articulation) is in fact the process that allows us to glimpse through God's "mirror". But more than that...
“Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock after the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God (Shemot 3:1).” Why Is It ‘The Mountain of God’? Rashi comments, “in order to keep them away from private property,...
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do as follows: load up your beasts and go at once to the land of Canaan. Take your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt...
“Busy remaking the world, man forgot to remake himself (Andrei Platonov, Nursery of the New Man).” My limited understanding of Platanov, based on “Soul and Other Stories,” is that he understood that the Soviet communists were convinced they could successfully remake the world. Their failure to remake...
How did Jacob get from Canaan to Egypt without GPS? I consider Debbie one of the smartest people I have ever met in my life. Yet, a mysterious obnoxious woman hiding somewhere in our car’s radio treats her like an idiot. We often wonder if this woman...
Our obsession with celebrities is not new. Long ago, Pharaoh understood the need to have the newly freed young man transformed into something bigger than life, before, he placed Joseph over Egypt: ‘And removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph’s hand;...
Inevitably, when I read the Haggadah, I am aggravated by Joseph’s brothers. Not because they sold him. That worked out well, plus, I once sold Naomi for, I recall twenty-five cents, she claims ten. Obviously, the woman who shared a car ride from Toronto to Baltimore decided to...
There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. ― Robert Louis Stevenson When I am a stranger to myself I will always be a stranger to everyone else. I will be a foreigner in my own life. ****** Jacob Meets Pharaoh The Text The Context: ‘As soon as Jacob...
‘Then Judah went up to him and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your servant, you who are the equal of Pharaoh.” (44:18 - sefaria.org)’ I read this confrontation between Judah and Joseph, and although...
Naomi believes my hesitation to speak of my confrontation with Rabelais’ Gargantua through the hands of Matteo Ricci (“Looking For Babel V - Reverberations”) is overly dramatic. It definitely is not! Upon admittance to the Stroke Center I was sent for the longest MRI of my life....
There are times when Eric Kaplan is the “fun” guide through a maze of thoughtful challenges, such as in, “Does Santa Exist?” Some of his blogs remind me of the more stern professor, such as in yesterday’s, “America, The Land of the Dead.” Then, there are the...
“Listing is a fundamental literary strategy. It occurs constantly, and only occasionally draws attention to itself (William Gass, “I’ve Got A Little List).” One must meet the Lord High Executioner of the Mikado for the Original List. Not to be outdone by Gilbert and Sullivan we have...
"I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still." Arthur Rimbaud I’ve been receiving unhappy comments about “A Painful Silence,” all day, even from the person who gave the idea to me: “This is not the silence to...
“Joseph ordered his chariot and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel; he presented himself to him and, embracing him around the neck, he wept on his neck a good while (46:29).” ‘Here, also, he wept greatly and continuously — more than is usual. Jacob,...
