Questions tagged [tanach]
An acronym of "Torah" (Five Books of Moses), "Neviim" (Prophets), and "Kesuvim" (Writings). The three books together form the "Written Torah".
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Why are many conversations in Tanach between two parties exclusively
Inspired by a comment on this question it seems the vast majority, if not the entirety, of conversations in Tanach are between two and only two parties. I would like to understand conceptually why ...
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Are there examples in Tanach of 3 or more parties having an ongoing conversation?
From what I have seen in reading Tanach every conversation is between two parties and two parties only. Sometimes those parties consist of 1 person and other times of several people for example "And ...
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Can anyone explain R. Nissim of Marseilles's seemingly problematic opinion on longevity in Genesis?
Recently, I have been looking into the idea of longevity in Genesis. Today, I stumbled upon R. Nissim of Marseilles's opinion of it, but no matter how many times I read over the article that mentioned ...
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What would the status of the “Book of the Wars of God” be today?
The Torah makes reference to a Book of the Wars of God (Bamidbar 21:10-16). According to most opinions this was an actual written work which has been lost over time. It is not clear (at least to me) ...
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How many times does the pausal hineini occur in the tanach
How many times does the pausal form of hineini occur in the Tanach?
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Level of exactness of Na'"ch
Torah was dictated by G-d to Moses and is exact by letter.
Mishnah and Gemmorah (and all subsequent books) are man-made and written loosely (at least not letter-exact - see תנא ושייר and more).
The ...
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The purpose and the permission to write Na"ch?
Torah (the 5 books) is [considered] G-d dictated, holistic and include all the necessary knowledge. It is allowed to be passed in the written form.
The detailed interpretations were given orally and ...
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What does the Canonization of Tanach mean?
Following "did-the-men-of-the-great-assembly-canonize-tanach" (please read for all the related sources):
To recap: before the canonization there were many man-made books, incl. Meggilot, Nevi'im, ...
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What is the trope for Ezra/Nehemiah and Daniel
I have been studying these seforim and noticed the text is marked with trope. However, since these seforim are not read publically, what is the proper cantillation? Like neviim?
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How could Ruth do yibbum if she converted only after her husband died?
How could Boaz be required to do Yibbum with Ruth being that she was a non jew when she was married to?
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Why is the word for silver in Torah the same word for money? [closed]
Is there a reason why the Hebrew word for silver is the same word for money in Hebrew?
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Source of small/large letters in the torah
Although there are many small and large letters throughout tanach, both the aleppo codex and the Leningrad codex have extremely few of them. Were they later introduced? The different miforshim, ...
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Who is Eliakim? Could he be both a son of the son of Hilkiah and Josiah?
In Kings II 18, Eliakim is the son of Hilkiah the kohen gadol, in Kings II 23 he is referred to as Jehoiakim son of Josiah. How could he be both?
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The Jewish View on a Person's Physical Appearance? [duplicate]
In my experience Judaism doesn’t place any importance at all in a persons appearance, wether they are attractive or not. Does anywhere in TaNaCh or Chazal even discuss this topic? (That appearance isn’...
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Do Jews accept the Bible as the inspired word of God? [duplicate]
According to the New Testament, the Bible is the inspired Word of God Himself.
2 Timothy 3:16.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for ...
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Sefer which expounds names in Tanach [duplicate]
The Torah itself in several places explains the names of people's names. For instance:
Yaakov was so called because he grabbed onto Esav's heel (Bereishis 25:26), and he was later called Yisrael as a ...
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Did any Navi get angry at HaShem?
At any point in the Torah does Avraham Avinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, or any of the other great Neviem ever get angry with HaSem?
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Keter Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Crown) tanach on the ten sons of Haman
I'm currently writing a paper on the famed "purimfest 1946." In attempt to respond to all rebuttals that are brought up, I need to take a glance at the most authoritative tanach, the Aleppo Codex. ...
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Views on participation in the Chidon Hatanach
In perusing Rav Moshe Tzuriel's Otzros Hamussar (page 1125, here), I noticed a section in which he writes strongly against participation in (and watching) the Chidon Hatanach, and also cites Rabbi ...
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Is there any Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible that is available in several different languages worldwide?
From what I understand, the Jewish tradition is very insistent that translations of the Hebrew Bible accurately reflect the original text.
Because of this, several Jewish English Bible translations ...
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Why no dot over the letter vav in the name of G-d in Genesis 2:4? [duplicate]
Reading Genesis 2:4, I noticed that the four-letter name of G-d does not have a dot over the letter "vav" as it usually has in other places in Tanakh. Why is that?
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What is the source for the midrash about Jewish soldiers escaping to Romania?
Specifically, looking for the midrash quoted by Radaq to Shoftim 20:15 as saying that the missing 1,000 Jewish soldiers "escaped to Romania."
Thanks!
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Why this order of words: יַגְדִּיל תּוֹרָה וְיַאְדִּיר
We end the Rabbi Chananyah ben Akashya quote with a quote from Yeshayahu 42:21, the last 3 words of which say יַגְדִּיל תּוֹרָה וְיַאְדִּיר, meaning "Torah great and glorious" (which quote also ...
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Sources for what happened to Avraham’s Converts? [duplicate]
In Bereishis (12:5 and in Rashi) we see that Avraham converted people in Charan, and then took them with him to Kena’an.
Do we know what happened to them?
• When Avraham and Lot separated, who did ...
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Is there anything in the Tanakh or Talmud about co-wives helping raise the child of other co-wives upon widowhood (or absence of husband)?
I just met an Israeli woman, who said that she became a widow when her first and only child was five years old.
She said that if it wasn't for her husband having more than one wife, with whom she ...
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Looking for an index for subjects in tanach [duplicate]
I am looking for an index for subjects in tanach. For example every place that pesach is mentioned/refered to or every time bris milah is mentioned/refered to etc.
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How many wives did king Shaul have?
I heard that king David had 18 wives.
Approximately how many wives did king Shaul have?
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Is Purim mentioned in later writings by Ezrah and his B"D?
I'm trying to understand how the earlier generations saw Purim. Ezrah and his B"D wrote a series of books, such as Ezrah, Divrei Hayamim and more.
Is the Purim story or Meggilat Ester mentioned in ...
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Why does Tanach specifically describe these women as “beautiful”?
Companion question to Why does Tanac"h specifically describe these males as "beautiul"?
Off the top of my head, the pesukim describe the following women as being beautiful:
Sarah (...
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Why there's no Targum on Prophets and Writings (נ"ך)?
Allegedly, the Targum on the Torah (Onkelos) was given at Sinai together with the Torah (Meggilah 3a).
The Prophets and the Writings were written by the Sages with "Ruach Hakodesh".
Were they ...
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List of people who lose a child in תנ"ך
Any other cases of people who lose a child in תנ"ך? I have a few ideas but am looking for a fuller list, though let's keep it to Pshat reading of the text, not Midrashim.
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Tools to validate Torah codes
Torah codes are "a purported set of secret messages encoded within the Hebrew text of the Torah" (Wikipedia).
For instance, a well known code suggests that counting 3 intervals of 12111 letters from ...
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Why is God called יָהּ in Shemot 15:2 in Shir Ha-Yam but in the next verse it says His name is יְהוָה?
Shemot 15:2 and 3 say:
ב עָזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ, וַיְהִי-לִי {ר} לִישׁוּעָה; {ס} זֶה אֵלִי וְאַנְוֵהוּ, {ס} אֱלֹהֵי {ר} אָבִי וַאֲרֹמְמֶנְהוּ. {ס}
ג יְהוָה, אִישׁ מִלְחָמָה; יְהוָה, {ר}...
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Does Satan have 12 wings?
Someone told me that according to Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, Satan has 12 wings.
Is it true?
The tanakh doesn't say anything about Satan's look then where does it come from?
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What is the greatest age difference between a married couple in Tanach?
In many instances, we know the ages of personalities in Tanach and when they got married. In some cases, we aren't given enough information within the text and in some of those instances, the ...
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Personal Attributes, Influence and Importance of Japhet Among Noah's Sons [closed]
Would you be so kind and provide brief, yet details information about personal attributes, influence and importance of Japhet, commonly agreed among Jews and also Hebrews, perhaps if possible by ...
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Why is the colour כחול ('blue') not mentioned in Tanach?
The colour כחול is not mentioned in Tanach. Given it's wide usage in later hebrew texts, why does it never feature in Tanach? Do any sources pick up on this?
(There is a different debate about what ...
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How many Parshios are in each Sefer of Tanach?
How many words are there in Tanach? already asks about several statistics about Sifrei Tanach, but there's one that was left out:
How many Parshios are in each Sefer of Tanach?
A Parsha is defined ...
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Chapters of Tanach present in Talmud Yerushalmi
Chapters of Tanach present in Talmud Bavli asks:
I heard there is a style of Talmud study somewhere, where as a verse presents itself in the Talmud, the student would learn the entire chapter from ...
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Mikraos Gedolos set of the entire Tanakh?
I will start by saying that I know nothing and must admit I was raised Christian. I had some curiosity as to why Christians are Christian when our guy that we are supposed to imitate and be like told ...
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Are there any recordings of the Tanakh read or chanted according to reconstructed Ancient Hebrew pronunciation?
I'm looking for audio recordings of the Tanakh, but without modern or Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciations - rather an attempt to recreate what Ancient (and Archaic) Hebrew actually sounded like.
I'm also ...
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Strange letters according to Sefer haTaggin
My chevrusoh mentioned last week that there is a sefer entitled Sefer haTaggin which discusses all of the strange letters found in Tana"ch.
Is there a collection of these letters and their forms (...
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Common language and the language of the Scripture used in 1st century BCE?
I read from the internet where most articles say:
A. The common language used by the Jews around 1st century BCE to (at least) the beginning of 1st century CE was Greek and the Scripture they use is ...
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Would a printed copy of Meguillat Esther require genizah?
Meguillat Esther is, famously, the one Tanakh text in which the name of G-d is never mentioned. Suppose you had a worn-out printed copy. Could you dispose of it as you would any old book, given the ...
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Multiple characters with the same name in the bible
In the Bible most of the names are unique, especially for the main characters.
As far as I know there is only one Abraham and only one Moses etc.
There are some names that appear more than once like ...
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Why does ויאמר almost never use לאמר, and why does וידבר almost always use לאמר?
It seems that whenever Tanach says ויאמר, "and he said," it almost never uses the word לאמר, "saying."1
Conversely, whenever Tanach says וידבר, "and he spoke," it almost always uses the word לאמר, "...
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Torah Genealogy not mentioning Childless people
In Shmuel 1, 17:12, the sons of Yishai are listed. There is a discrepancy between this count (of 7) and the textual statements that Yishai had 8 sons. Some meforshim explain this as because the 8th, ...
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Why does the Tetragrammaton sometimes include the cholam vowel?
Why does the Tetragrammaton sometimes include the cholam vowel ?
The question isn't a duplicate of What are the reasons or rules for the different variations in vowels on the Tetragrammaton?
Because ...
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Sheimos-free versions of Tanach Online
There are many websites that provide the user with the text of Tanach (as well as various other Jewish sources). When printing sources, I like to avoid printing "Sheimos", or actual names of Hashem, ...
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Jewish wisdom on how to remain calm under stressful situations
What do the scriptures say on how to calm oneself down when one is faced with exiting his comfort zone? As long as I can remember, I've always became quite nervous with uncomfortable feelings ...
