Lesson date: 12/11/5858AA

Verses 1-2 – Here we see that Yoseph is told that his father is sick and he takes his 2 sons and goes to his father’s place in Goshen(Drawing Near). We are not told if this is the first time that the boys have met their grandfather or not. This I understand well because I did not meet my granddaughter until she was 14 and I was 64. I only knew she existed a little over 2 years before that and as a result I can identify with Yisra’el meeting his grandsons, probably young men in their twenties, possibly even their thirties, for the first time. ((Yoseph lives in Mitsrayim 22 years before his father came and his father lived there 17 years before he died.)) ((See how Sunday School, Bible School and bedtime stories have shaped our thoughts?))

Continue reading Bereshith (Genesis) 48 →

Lesson date: 12/115858AA

Verse 1-2  – “called” = H7121 – קָרָא – qârâ’ – kaw-raw’ – A primitive root (rather identical with H7122 through the idea of accosting a person met); to call out to (that is, properly address by name,

“befall” – H7122 – קָרָא – qârâ’ – kaw-raw’ – A primitive root; to encounter, whether accidentally or in a hostile manner: – befall, (by) chance, (cause to) come (upon), fall out, happen, meet.

“Last days” – H319 – אַחֲרִית – ‘achărı̂yth – akh-ar-eeth’ – From H310; the last or end, hence the future; also posterity: – (last, latter) end (time), hinder (utter) -most, length, posterity, remnant, residue, reward.

Continue reading Bereshith (Genesis) 49 →

Lesson date: 7/7/5855AA

Verses 1-3 – Ya’aqob has died and we see an outpouring of emotion for Yoseph toward his father. We can tell because it says that Yospeh wept over his father: Joh 11:35  יהושע wept.

Joh 11:36  The Yehudim therefore said, “See how He loved him!”

The Hebrew custom is to bury the deceased the same day. The problem was that the trip to Hebron would have taken between one and two weeks, @10-12 days at a slow gait. We see Yoseph ordering the surgeons to embalm his father for the journey to the cave of Makpelah in Hebron. The Egyptians wept or mourned for Ya’aqob for 70 days, 40 days during the embalming process and 30 days, according to custom, after his embalming.

Continue reading Bereshith (Genesis) 50 →

We have seen in the writings of Yohannon that he uses a devise, or I would say a literary signature, of embedding 7’s in his narrative. Also, Yohannon writes topologically rather than chronologically and will say something out of chronological order to explain in his current narrative. He does this both in Revelation and also his Besorah. What if we could detect something like this in the narrative of Yoseph? Would it be important or even relevant? Wouldn’t it be fun to try? Let’s look and see if we can detect a pattern in the narrative of Yoseph.

Continue reading Random Thoughts on the Story of Yosef →

Lesson date: 12/../5854AA

Whenever I read Scripture I never know where or in which direction it will lead me. On 10/28/5854AA we began reading in Bereshith once again and we were finding gems and jewels as always. In preparing for the Torah study for Shabbat on 12/10/5854AA I read Ber. 8:21-22: Gen 8:21  And יהוה smelled a soothing fragrance, and יהוה said in His heart, “Never again shall I curse the ground because of man, although the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and never again smite all living creatures, as I have done,

Gen 8:22  as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.”

Continue reading The Thirteenth Month: Or, “The Day that The Earth Stood Still” →

Lesson date: 11/17/5858AA

Around 1979 Arnold  Schwarzenegger made a movie named “The Villain,” also starring Kirk Douglas and Ann Margret. It was pretty silly and based on a Bugs Bunny or Roadrunner cartoon backdrop with real people. Anyway, Arnold’s character’s name in the movie was Handsome Stranger and Ann-Margret asked him how he got his name and he told her that his mother named him after his father, who was a handsome stranger. ((No, I don’t smoke anything so we’re not going there.)) It sounds funny (weird) and, even funny (ha-ha) but just suppose it is also applicable to one of the best known stories of Torah? What story is that, pray tell? Abram and Sarai, oops, and Hagar.

Continue reading Who’s the Stranger Now? The Deeper Story of Hagar →