Category: Religion/Spirituality
by the assertion, “I fear God” (Ib. xlii. 18). The first instance of an atheist we meet in Pharaoh, king of Egypt, when he defiantly said, “I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Exod. v. 2). Another form of atheism is warned against in the words of Moses: “Lest t...
by the assertion, “I fear God” (Ib. xlii. 18). The first instance of an atheist we meet in Pharaoh, king of Egypt, when he defiantly said, “I know not the Lord, neither will I l...
2. lxxxiv. Some psalms are a protest against those who rely on human forceand human cunning instead of having faith in God, a protest of the ענוים against the view and creed of the זדים and גאים or גוים e.g., ix. and x., xi., xiv., xvi., xvii....
3. xviii. 1), and interrupted by the narrative of the visit of the threeangels. The reader might have expected, “And God stood yet before Abraham.” The method of expressing the same in the above form for the sake of euphemism is called tikkun soferi...
4. viii. 18), whose names had reference to good or evil events of thetime, were wrongly interpreted as referring to the birth of Jesus; the sufferings and final relief of the servant of the Lord, that is, Israel (chaps. lii. and liii.), were appl...
5. ii. 12); that is to say, as you do not wish a diminution or destructionThis commandment has also a wider sense, and forbids every illegal acquisition of property, whether it be directly by theft or robbery, or by cheating, by embezzlement or forger...
6. li. 17)Our desire to please Him whom we love sincerely, our longing for an opportunity to do what is good in His eyes, ought not to remain hidden and silent. The sooner and the more fr...
7. xix. 14) has been interpreted to apply to all kinds of slander aboutthose absent or dead. Our respect for the memory of the dead is expressed in the Latin maxim, “De mortuis nil nisi bonum;” or in the Hebrew, אחרי מות קדשים אמור [41] “After th...
8. d. If the molad of Tishri of a year succeeding a leap-year is on MondayThe first of these four exceptions is to prevent the Day of Atonement from falling on Friday or Sunday, and Hoshaana-rabba from falling on Sabbath; the third exception is to gua...
9. v. 4), be explained thus: The principal prayer of the day being that inthe morning, the Jews, as a protest against the sun-worship of the idolaters, who at that hour were accustomed to greet the sun with their prayer, turned away from the east and...
10. cxlvi. 10, in which the Holiness, Glory, and Kingdom of God areThe Priests’ Blessing, originally spoken by priests, descendants of Aaron, is now in most Synagogues included by the Reader in the tefillah by way of quotation; only on Holy-day...
11. xix. 27), a razor is not employed, and shaving is avoided; the hair ofthe beard and the face is clipped with scissors. This prohibition, like that of “rounding the corners of the head” (ibid.), belongs to a group of precepts which aimed at keeping...