Under His Wings: the World Was Hatched, Not Built
Every description the Torah gives of divine protection is the same shape, and it is not the shape of a…
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Cheshvan: the Month the Deep Opened
Marcheshvan has no festival. It arrives after a month crowded with them and offers nothing, which is how it earned…
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Luz: Two Places Where Death Has No Jurisdiction
There are two coordinates in creation where death is said to have no jurisdiction. One is microscopic and one is…
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A Genizah Is a Vault, Not a Grave
Everyone assumes a worn sacred text is buried. Put in the ground, like a body, finished. The Hebrew does not…
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Why a Candle Is Lit for the Dead
A candle is lit for someone who has died, and a lamp burns continuously in places where nobody is standing…
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Asof Asef: Harvest, Ruin, and the Lamp That Tells Them Apart
Rachel names her son twice in one breath, and the two verbs point in opposite directions. אָסַף אֱלֹהִים אֶת חֶרְפָּתִי…
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With Smells We Smelt Light
Ore is metal locked inside rock, and heat alone will not release it. A fire hot enough to melt the…
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Hakol · הַכֹּל and הַקּוֹל
הַכֹּל · הַקּוֹל Everything, and the voice. Two different words, two different spellings, and one sound. They are homophones rather…
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Chorev: the Mountain Whose Name Is Running
Every mountain in the Torah is reached by somebody. The one where the voice comes is reached twice, four centuries…
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Yosef, the Redeemer Who Inherited on a Technicality
Gematria assigns every Hebrew letter a number and adds them. Run it on Yosef and on Zion and the same…
