The Bones of Joseph: Skeletal Traces

In this podcast below I review the midrashic problems regarding the three citations of Yosef’s bones in Gen 50, Ex 13, and Joshua 24, almost framing the history of Israel from Exodus to conquest.

Then we explore the archetypal psychology (C G Jung) to expose the inner dimensions of the paradox of Joseph’s bones being laid in an aron alongside the aron of the brit during the entire wilderness journey.

In what way can we approach the image of the skeletal remains of the middah (sefira) of Yosef/yesod in the perfection of Moshe/tiferes

For Rebbe Nachman the one needed the other...

Moshe's Speech Impediment as Protest

From Preface to Night by Elie Wiesel 2006

The argument Moshe uses is a Kal Vachomer as well as a matter of speech impediment. We explore the difference and possible similarities in the eye of the Rophschitser Rebbe (Zera Kosdesh) and the Shem MiShmuel.

Jacob's Secret Message on his Deathbed

Gen 49:1 In the last scene on Jacob's deathbed, surrounded by his children, he has a prophetic moment when he desires to tell them the (acharit yamim) end days. In the next verse (Gen 49:2) however, he launches into the blessings for each tribe. What happened between these two verses? Why did he not reveal to them the time of redemption? We tour the midrashic responses then three Hassidic masters and finally a dazzling Zohar that sheds light on the secret of survival during the dark night of exile.

Benjamin's Tears

We complete the series on the tears of the Patriarchs with Jospeh’s final meeting with Benjamin.

We investigate the “vale of tears” (in hac lacrimarum to borrow from our neighbor religion) that extends from the biblical narrative through the rabbinic imaginative

midrash to Song of Songs (the temple as the neck of Israel) and subsequent Hurban,

down to the Piacetzna’s lcarimosal final parting words before deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto.

for further reading on Benjamin see:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5047de16e4b026a4c324cd81/t/60834eaa36c10f0a0e3475dc/1619218094126/DD340_Yo012.pdf

Joseph's Chiastic Tears: The Framing of Reconciliation

In our third in a series of "Tears of the Patriarchs" we examine the seven scenes where Joseph weeps in the last few chapters of Genesis. We use the literary chiastic analysis to reveal the moment of deep awareness of his wound and its catharsis.

We compare the analysis of Harav Aharon Lichtenstein (z’l) with scholar Aviva Zornberg in exposing a spiritual roadmap we too can participate in in our healing.

Esau's Lovebite

We explore the orthography of Gen 33:4 (those pesty dots over the word "and he kissed him") and the history of interpretation of the strange puncta extraordinaria either as an ancient "nota bene" begging for a reverse meaning or an actual cancellation of the word due to scribale error.

Both the Rabbis and Origen! struggle to decide betwween the two choices, whereas more mystically inclined readers demand we hold the paradox of both (Shelah and Shem Mishmuel).

Culturally it affects the self identity of the descendants of Esau (Rome/Christianity) and Jacob/Israel and how to approach our ancient brother by either avoiding or placating.

Jacob's Tears

The stories of Genesis reveal the underlying hand of Providence that insists (tragically) on the bloodlines over human emotions and relationships.

In the tears of Jacob we sense the intimations he already senses for the temporality of his love for Rachel as we also see in Dante’s 

love of Beatrice (and his eventual realization that this leads to the lev of the divine).

So too,  (lehavdil) the way Norman Jewison (midrashically!) connects the love of Ronny Cammareri (Nicolas Cage) for Loretta (Sher) in Moonstruck (1987).

As Loretta and Ronny go to the Met, to see Puccini’s La Boheme.... we are given Mimì’s famous “Donde lieta,” whereupon. Loretta cries. 

Mimì’s resignation of her love for Rodolfo echoing the way Loretta feels regarding her pending marriage and true love for Ronny. 

In this moment, the opera itself reflects the inner turmoil of the film’s characters.

It our pericope Jacob embracing, kissing Rachel then crying is just such a tragic moment. 

Esau's Tears

The Image of Esau crying when he discovers the blessing was stolen has repercussions for the descendants of Jacob. The Midrash and Zohar track the grief he suffered through the three tears he shed and their effect on Jewish suffering.

Mamre the Man, the Place, the Legend

Mamre is the site where Abraham pitched the tents for his camp, built an altar (Genesis 13:18), and was brought divine tidings, in the guise of three angels, of Sarah's pregnancy (Genesis 18:1-15).

The Oak of Mamre is possibly a Terebinth (Pistacia terebinthus) and its location near to Hebron (off limits to Israelis since the Oslo Accords).

Genesis 13:18 has Abraham settling by 'the great trees of Mamre'. The original Hebrew tradition appears, to judge from a textual variation conserved in the Septuagint, to have referred to a single great oak tree, which Josephus called Ogyges.

We investigate the man Mamre in Midrash as well as the dazzling interpretation of his interaction with Avrohom in the Tshuos Chen, Reb Gedaliah of Linitz a disciple of the BESHT.

Abraham's Journey: Transformation of Guilt into Unconditional Love

In this mediation on the space between Now ch and Lech Lecha we are provided midrashically with the first of the ten trials of Abraham.

This unacknowledged trial in the listing in Mishnah Avot is however mention in Pirke DeReb Eliezer.

We struggle with the evolution of the trials from the first in Nimrod’s fire to the tenth, the fire on the altar with isaac bound.

Is it possible to plot a trajectory of the backstory (emerging from the fire, brother burned in the same fire) and its resultant feeling of guilt, and the wandering and exile to Canaan from the center of civilization, as an internal

and epigenetic trauma of loss (of his brother) and the caring for Lot (his brother’s son) and see the stories of Genesis as a working through of this primal

trauma and it transformation to the middah of unconditional loving?

If so we have a spiritual roadmap for the fires that consumed us a generation ago, and the need for our transformation.

Meir Yechiel's Bris

Genesis: The Generations of Mankind

The Ruzhiner on Ha'azinu

Letting Go of the Sheretz in the Mikvah

Covenant and Dispensation

All Is Not Fair in Love and War

Listening as Witnessing

The Prince and the Beautiful Wench

The Fixing Of The Gaze

TSHUOS CHEN: Tisha B'Av Torah