Charles R. Lightner

The Fiery Snakes of Numbers 21:5-9 Practical magic or retrospective justification?   The Torah portion called Chukkat ( Numbers 19:1–22:1) is full of oddities but perhaps none is more unusual than the account of the fiery snakes in Numbers 21:5–9. The incident occurs in the 40th year of the Israelites wandering in the desert, after the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, and after the ...

The Bible Discourages Territorial Expansion Judaism is not a territorially expansionist religion. It is different in that respect from either Islam or Christianity. Judaism is not and has not been a religion of conquest, expansion, or proselytism. The Hebrews who were delivered from Egyptian slavery 3500 years ago elbowed their way into the territory of the “seven nations” that occup...

A Thought on Parashat Be'ha'alotcha Ignoring the Biblical Editor   Finalizing the Biblical Text We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls, from texts found in other desert locations, from the Cairo Geniza, and from improved analytical techniques, that the text of the Hebrew Bible was essentially finalized within a century, or so, of the turn of the era. That is, about 99% of the tex...

The Enigmatic Man of Time The first section of Acharei Mot deals with the physical rituals of the Yom Kippur observance. The seriousness of the subject is clearly signaled by a reminder of what happened to the eldest sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, who were killed for improperly offering alien fire before the Lord (Lev 10:1). Aaron is told to take two he-goats to the entrance of the ...

Some Thoughts on Tzara'at A metzorah is a person who is afflicted with tzara’at, a skin condition with specific physical symptoms. It causes the skin to become scaly in patches that are more than skin deep. The hair in those patches turns white. The typical English translation of tzara’at as “leprosy” is incorrect and unfortunate. The condition is not similar to leprosy as we know it. T...

The Circumcision Effect Parashat Tazria deals with two subjects: the purification procedures to be followed by a mother after childbirth, and issues arising from certain skin conditions. The provisions regarding childbirth occupy Chapter 12 of Leviticus which, with only eight verses, is the shortest Chapter in the Torah. It is also one of the most difficult to understand and, to the mod...

The Publication of Laws The book of Leviticus is also called Torat Kohanim, or the Law of Priests, and with a couple of exceptions, it is wholly attributed to the Priestly Source. There is essentially no narrative in Leviticus; it is a compilation of laws. It does not separate Exodus from Numbers by passage of time or by experience. It is distinguished from them by subject. The Book ...

The Tuning of the Mishkan In my post last week on Parashat Terumah I suggested that the essential purpose of the Israelite’s desert sanctuary, the mishkan, was to create a place from which God would communicate, through Moses, to the Israelite people. That place was above the cover of the ark, between the two keruvim. When the account of Parashat Terumah is stripped of all of the detail...

The Changing Role of God In a prior post I argued that the essential purpose of the Israelites’ desert sanctuary, whose design and construction occupy so much of the last half of the book of Exodus, was to create a place from which God would communicate through Moses to the people Israel. See here: https://www.charleslightner.com/parashat-terumah-5784/ Or Here: https://medium.com/...