A lamp to my feet is Your word and a light to my path. I swore and I will fulfill it—to observe Your just laws. Psalm 119:105-106 Robert Alter Lamp/ light – What is the plain meaning of the text? Isn’t that what we all want to know? Don’t confuse me with theological propositions or…
As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Romans 4:17 NIV As it is written – Judaism today is intimately dependent on…
Then God spoke all these words, saying, Exodus 20:1 NASB All these words – kāl dābārim, “all words.” But what is the meaning of “all”? This verse precedes the recitation of the ten commandments. Are just the Ten Commandments included in “all”? What about the rest of God’s words to Moses? Orthodox Rabbinic Judaism has a…
