Bible Classes - Tanakh

In our weekly Minyan club memebrs share their stories. In this session we hear Suzy Levin and Reynaldo Yehoshua Rodriguez

Avraham's brilliant negotiation with Hittites. Surprise, Ephron is not a greedy villain.

How was Avraham's servant able to convince Rivka's family to let her go to an unknown land?

Pointers and food for thought on the Parasha. Focus on the two negotiations in the Parasha. Avraham with the Hittites and his servants with Rivka's family.

The Akedah is one of the most challenging episodes of the Torah, if not of the whole Tanakh. the idea Dying for God has become embedded in Jewish consciousness largely because of the Akedah, but it has evolved differently among Sepharadm and Ashkenazim. In this episode we examine the Ashkenazi school of though and the possible influence Christianity had on it.

Chapter 18 in Genesis: The mysterious visitors. Why did Lot serve Matzah? What was the problem of Sodom and how is it related to the Tower of Babel?

According to the Midrash Abraham hesitated, or even refused, to be circumcised. in this discussion we see that this interpretation was a clever campaign by the rabbis to convince their contemporaries t circumcise their children, despite Greek influence. We also discuss the importance of the Exodus and why Abraham did not object when he was told that his descendants will be enslaved in Egypt.

In this episode: The Tower of Babel was an attempt at a 1984 style society. What exactly happened there? who is Nimrod? What was the origin of Abraham? The first energy war, and the mysterious King Melchizedek.

Here we analyze the story of Cain and Abel. It is a multi-layered story which represents rifts in society and among families. Is it possible that God favored Abel in order to show us what not to do, as the horrible consequence was the first murder? Further in Genesis we find Lemekh as the father of civilization and a ruthless ruler, whose children symbolize all of humanity.

Third session of the discussion of Genesis. Here we analyze the events following the act of eating of the Forbidden Fruit, the symbolism of Gan Eden in parallel to the Mishkan and the Jewish Home, and how to break out of the inevitable cycle of life and death.

The Tree of Knowledge was not an obstacle planted on man's path to make him sin, but rather a symbolic description of the process of coming of age and discovering free will.

An analysis of the differences between the two creation stories in Bereshit. Here I offer my theory that the first story describes God's perfect world while the second describes the imperfect world in which we live.

When Jacob meets Joseph after more than 20 years of separation he does not cry. Was he really reading the Shema, as the Midrash says, or was he upset at Joseph?In this discussion this question is addressed and with it the riddle of Joseph's long silence and why he never let his father know that he is alive and well in Egypt.

Yosef starts his journey as an innocent and naive child, oblivious to the emotions of his brothers. He is betrayed by them, by Potiphar’s wife, and by the cup bearer, until he finally finds his own voice.

Pre- Shabbat sermon on VaYishlah. Why all families are dysfunctional and what can we learn from the non-apology of Yaacob to Esau.

What was the meaning of the ladder? Why does Jacob switch between God’s names? How we transmit subliminal messages to our children, and how Jacob misunderstood Rachel.