Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — to a classic work of rock ‘n’ roll. In this week’s parsha, Lech Lecha, Avram is told to go up to the land of Canaan and settle in the land which will belong to his offspring. Due to a famine, Avram temporarily…
“Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for reverence of Heaven” (Babylonian Talmud, tractate Berachot, 33b) In his commentary of this week’s portion, Lech Lecha, Avraham Burg takes issue with the concept of faith. Weaving together late antiquity Midrash, Maimonides and his own hermeneutics, Burg charts his namesake, the original Abraham, as he who…
Genesis 12:1–17:27 Abraham, Defender of the Fledgling Faith The culture of the Christian West, the culture of the Muslim world and the culture of the Jewish community are, in the final analysis, the cultures of Abraham. Some call them revealed religions — religions with a central hub that turns on an axis of divine revelation,…
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