In this chapter, Avraham challenges God.
He says - You promised me offspring, and yet I cannot have children! - You promised a land. How will that ever happen?
Avraham asks for assurances from God.
And God understands that Avraham needs that reassurance.
God offers a Brit - a pact, a contract, a covenant - and this covenant has some interesting imagery - animals cut in two, birds of prey, fire and smoke, a sky filled with stars. What does it all mean?
Today we explore this dramatic exchange, and the meaning behind the imagery.
In this chapter:
1. War in the Jordan valley - four Mesopotamian kings take control of the five kingdoms of the valley. After the five kings revolt, the four-kings come and conquer the valley taking its population captive, including Lot.
2. Abraham embarks in a military rescue mission to save his nephew Lot with 318 fighters - called "his students, those born in his household." He is victorious.
3. On his return, Abraham is greeted by two kings - polar opposites - the King of Sedom, and Maki Tzedek. With whom will he ally?
Lot has traveled all the way from Mesopotamia at Avraham's side! Why do they split up now?
And why choose Sedom?
Today our attention turns to Abraham and Sarah and their trek to the promised land.
Why did God choose Abraham?
Did God choose him *because* he was special or did God choose him to *become* special?
We begin today with the Tower of Babel. What is wrong with building skyscrapers? Why did God intervene?
Our chapter depicts the three lines of the Sons of Noach - Yefet, Ham and Shem and the development of their civilizations. This is the story of the "Seventy Nations".
What is the symbol of the rainbow?
Why does Noach get drunk and lol naked in his tent?
And was Noach a Tzaddik?
Today we discuss:
1. How the restoration of the world after the flood reflects the Creation of ch.1
2. Anthropomorphic expressions in the chapter
3. The "evil inclination of the heart of man" - How can it be a reason to DESTROY the world and also to PRESERVE the world?
4. The alienation between ADAM and ADAMA
Today we address 3 topics:
1. The double story of the Flood
2. The dates of the flood
3. The notion of "Zikaron"
And a few connections to the Yamim Noraim (the High Holy Days)
Chapter 6 describes the cryptic episode of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of man". God's patience with humanity is running out!
Soon, God decides to de-create his creation in a great "MAbul" - more a "confusion" than a flood.
This is a list of genealogies, of a family tree!
We will discover that there is much that one can learn from a list! The key? - Look at the differences, the aberrations and deflections from the standard formula!
Cain and Abel. The first murder. Brother kills brother.
It seems like Bereshit is addressing some of humanity's fundamental weaknesses and flaws.
But then the chapter turns to the seventh generation, and the family and poem of Lemekh. We offer two modes of interpretation for this cryptic story.
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For my podcast in which I teach the story of the tension between Kayin and Hevel and the murder itself, listen here
This is the story of the sin and expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
One of the greatest and classic challenges of biblical scholarship has been the contradictions between chapter 1 and 2. Many don't pay attention, but in fact the chapters are quite at odds with one another.
Today we articulate many of the differences between the chapters and then we offer a dialectical model which sees ch.1 and 2 in dialectical tension, in the end offering a more holistic picture of the world.
Chapter 2 zooms in on the human, and humanity's uniqueness: Spirituality, responsibility, loneliness and relationships.
What is the purpose Creation narrative?
Is it intended to teach us that the world was brought into being in a mere six days?
Or does it teach us something about the nature of life, being, human purpose and dignity?
Tanakh ends with a beginning.
The Galut, the Exile happens, but there is a Return, an "Aliyah" - this is the "end without an ending."
Indiana Jones went looking for it. But where is it?
Our chapter gives us a few clues!
Yoshiyahu is another exemplary king. Rising to power as a child, he leads the nation back to God.
We will focus on the remarkable discovery of a Sefer Torah in the storerooms of the Temple. What is this scroll? Was the Torah lost for a while?
Do we suffer for our parents sins?
Today we suffer the most evil king of Yehudah - King Mennasseh. In the book of Kings his idolatry is the cause of the Hurban - the national exile. But here in Divrei Hayamim, we witness Menasseh repenting and recanting from his idolatrous ways. What is the truth? Why does Divrei Hayamim report this previously unknown story?
