September 4, 2021 by Bettijane Eisenpreis “You are standing this day, all of you, before the Lord your God – your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp …” — Deuteronomy 29:9 The lines quoted above are among the most …
July 17, 2021 by Bettijane Eisenpreis “For your own sake, therefore, be most careful – since you saw no shape when the Lord your God spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire – not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever…” — Deuteronomy 4: 15-16 The …
May 24, 2021 by Bettijane Eisenpreis “The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets …
May 6, 2021 by Bettijane Eisenpreis “Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month – the Day of Atonement – you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all …
February 20, 2021 by Bettijane Eisenpreis “Place the cover on top of the Ark, after depositing in the Ark the Pact that I will give you. There I will meet with you and I will impart with you — from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on top of the Ark …
February 13, 2021 by Bettijane Eisenpreis “And I will remove sickness from your midst. No woman in your land shall miscarry or be barren.” – Exodus 23:26 This parashah, “mishpatim,” (“laws”) contains some laws that are so well known that it is easy to overlook the sentence quoted above. But no line of Torah is …
Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. ~ Genesis 50: 26 The story of Joseph is a dramatic one. It was the basis of Thomas Mann’s acclaimed four-part novel, Joseph and His Brothers and of the …
Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis “When Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, she became envious of her sister, and Rachel said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die.” Genesis 30:1 Sibling rivalry seems to have existed literally from the beginning of history, starting with Cain and Abel. From the start, …
Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis “And Sarah laughed to herself, saying ‘Now that I am withered, am I to have enjoyment — with my husband so old?’ Then the lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am? Is anything too wondrous for the …
Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis “And if you do pobey these rules and observe them faithfully, the Lord will maintain for you the gracious covenant that He made on oath with your fathers.” Deuteronomy 7:12 We have seen the word, “Eikev” or, “heel” for which this parashah is named before in the Torah. Its Hebrew …
Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis “These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan…” Deuteronomy 1:1 Words are very important in the history of our people. What we call the Ten Commandments are called in Hebrew the Ten Words. We do not conceive of God in pictures. …
Bettijane Eisenpreis By Bettijane Eisenpreis Daughters are not Sons They said, “The Lord commanded my lord to assign the land to the Israelites as shares by lot; and my Lord was further commanded by the Lord to assign the shares of our kinsman Zelophehad to his daughters. Now if they marry persons from another Israelite …
