Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.

The very introduction to the Bible is obscure. We would have expected the introduction to tell us why God created the world and what God expects from humans, a problem that bothered the famous Bible commentator Rashi (1040-1105), but instead chapters 1 and 2 and other parts of the Bible are obscure, as can be seen in the following items. The obscurities are apparently purposely opaque to prompt us to think, and by thinking improve ourselves and society. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

As with all of the prior men and women mentioned in the Bible, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, patriarchs whom we might expect that the Torah would give us plenty of information about, there is nothing about Isaac’s wife Rebekah that is crystal clear. Every fact and every event is obscure. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — The biblical story of the flood during the days of Noah raises many questions, especially about divine punishments, and the answers help us to understand how to interpret biblical events. Some of the questions are: Why did divine punishments vary in delivery? Some examples are as

Virtually all, if not all that we are told about Isaac is obscure, as with Abraham and Jacob. The Torah leaves out explanations for behaviors, leaving it to us to imagine what occurred and to derive meaning from our own ideas. The following are some examples of opaque events. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

A careful analysis of Abraham’s nephew Lot raises the question of whether or not he was a righteous man. What did he do to merit saving when the people among whom he lived died by fire? We may think we know about him, but actually virtually everything the Torah tells us about him is obscure, requiring us to make up our own interpretations and learn lessons from them. There are rational interpretations by rabbis and scholars as well as mystical and midrashic ones. Which should we accept? The following are some questionable items. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

Most people think they know a lot about Abraham the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They are mistaken. The events recorded about Abraham in scripture are generally if not always obscure. When the Bible does not clarify exactly what is happening, people tend to imagine details and come to think of them as really happening in the Bible. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin  BOCA RATON, Florida — One of the most lamentable recent events was the death of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who was born in 1948 and died on November 7, 2020. He was a British Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, award-winning author, international religious leader, respected moral voice, and public figure. He

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin  BOCA RATON, Florida — There is a remarkable similarity between Noah and Adam that should prompt us to think and understand each of the two biblical figure in a deeper manner. The following are some of the similarities. Both were the fathers of all future generations. Their names indicated their

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin  BOCA RATON, Florida — Many Jews feel that biblical time frames and dating were never meant to be taken literally. The Bible is not a history book. It is designed to teach about the existence of God and proper behavior. The world may have been created over a very long

Kohelet (also spelled Qohelet), Ecclesiastes in Greek and now English, is read during the holiday of Sukkot. We do not know why this book was chosen from among the books of the Bible called The Writings. A popular explanation is that Sukkot is a happy holiday and Ecclesiastes is read to add a calming, some sobriety. The following is my review of The Anchor Bible commentary of the book. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]