We regularly describe Judaism as an ancient religion, emphasizing the antiquity of our narratives and pointing back to ancestors who take on mythic proportions. This week’s parashah is a prime exemplar, relating foundational stories of ...
Rabbi Gunther Plaut, in his Torah commentary on Lech-Lecha, calls Abraham ‘the Father of the Nation’. At the end of Noach (Gen 11:31) we were told that Terah, Abraham’s father, was taking his family from Ur towards Canaan, but Terah...
When I was a very small boy I had a large illustrated book of bible stories. I remember the full-page picture that accompanied the story of the Tower of Babel. It depicted a sand-coloured structure with external paths spiralling into th...
