Category: How to Read the Bible

  • On the Interpretation of Scripture

    , ,

    The Moses Chronicles has been on a bit of a hiatus. I’ll spare you the details, but the world is a bit of a wreck at the moment, and middle age has hit hard. Anyway, I am hoping now to post more regularly. Thanks for sticking with me. I am in the process of wrapping…

  • A Good, Swift Kick in the Gut

    , ,

    I will rebuke your descendants, and I will throw shit on your faces—the shit of your festival offerings—and you will be carried off to the shitpile along with it. — Malachi 2:3 Translations of the Bible are often too nice, so much so that the real meaning gets lost. The fact is, the Bible confronts…

  • Why We CAN Read the Torah, Fractures and All

    , ,

    We run up against it from the very beginning. In the first chapter of Genesis we read that “God created the man in his image; in the image of God he created him—male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27), but it’s not long before God creates humans again (Genesis 2:7). God tells Noah to bring two…

  • My Torah Guys

    ,

    I love photographs. This one is from a much-loved volume of old photos of the Holy Land. It shows three men sitting next to the Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem. I call it “My Torah Guys.” I don’t know if that’s really a Torah the guy on the left is holding (I doubt it…), but…

  • Why I Love (Jewish) Books

    ,

    I lack my mother’s talent at crafty things. My childhood cross-stitches were uneven. Crocheting made my fingers hurt. And knitting? A non-starter. But I do enjoy the results of her work, and my favorite is a pinwheel quilt she made for me many years ago — out of book fabric. It’s big. I love to…