Words Not Spoken . . . Words Not Heard
Words are powerful. In Genesis, chapter one, God creates through words: “God said, ‘Let there be light!’—and there was light. . . . God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,’. . . . God now said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image,’ ” (Genesis 1:3, 6, 26).
The Challenge of Righteousness
The wording of the verse gives rise to this debate. The text states that “Noah was a righteous man,” but immediately follows with the phrase “in his generation, he was above reproach. . . ” All of us, including the ancient Rabbis, are left to wonder if Noah is exceptional or not, if his righteousness would be universally righteous or simply righteous in his time.
Visions of Redemption
The last word of the Book of Genesis is b'Mitzrayim, "in Egypt," and that is where we find the Israelites at the beginning of the Book of Exodus.
He's a Sexy Guy
When you're as good looking and as "sensual" as Joseph, temptation and seduction are going to find you (see Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 35b). The Torah tells us, "Now Joseph happened to be fair of form and fair of appearance . . .
A Story of Hope
Without giving anything away, I can say publicly that Dan Brown's long-awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code, which is called The Lost Symbol (New York, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009), ends with a nechamta, a "note of comfort." Despite the trials and be