Author: Ben Zion
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Derech Hayam – lecture 10
One last battle in Afek during the time of King Yoash and the prophet Elisha, in which Yoash violates the prophet’s words and does not completely defeat his enemy. This enables us to summarize the message that emerges from all the Afek stories – in all of them there is a motif of not listening…
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Derech Hayam – lecture 9
An interesting connection to this week’s parsha (Shelah) and current events: Just as God did not take the Israelites by the coast so that they would not experience war and be afraid, so perhaps Moshe told the spies to go up the mountain and not to reach the coast so that they would not experience…
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Shilo – lecture 13
Why does the Tanach give such a central place to Eli’s sons in the story of Shilo? We know that they were wicked and perhaps because of their sins Shilo was destroyed, but did Eli himself also have responsibility here? The prophet says harsh things to Eli and predicts punishment that will come upon him…
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Derech Hayam – lecture 8
Another battle took place in Afek – 150 years after the battles from the previous lecture, and in a different place. But if the Tanach indicates that this battle too was in Afek, it is to teach us something related to the message of the Afek. We will see on the map the unique topography…
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Shilo – lecture 12
Shilo and Rosh Hashanah What is so special about Hannah’s prayer? Why did Chazal learn from Hannah the essence prayer? The structure of the Rosh Hashanah prayer? and why is Hannah’s story the Rosh Hashanah Haftara? We need to understand the worldview of all the people in the story – Elkanah, Pnina, Eli the priest.…
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Shilo – lecture 11
Shiloh and Tisha B’Av. Tisha B’Av was defined by Chazal as a day of weeping for generations. But surprisingly, Chazal describe Yosef and Benjamin as weeping for the destruction of the Temple along with the destruction of Shiloh. What does this mean? The answer is related to “שנאת חינם” (hatred for no reasobn), the reason…
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Shilo – lecture 9
Shiloh is a bridge, also from a halakhic perspective. We will study the Mishnah and Gemara that describe the holiness of the Tabernacle of Shiloh, as well as the structure of the Tabernacle. Based on these sources and archaeological findings, we will find out where exactly the Tabernacle stood in relation to the city of…
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Derech Hayam – lecture 7
This time too, we will compare two battles – the battle of Israel’s defeat at “Afek” and the battle of Israel’s defeat at Gilboa. They took place at different times and in different places, but the Tanach connects them – when it tells us, without any reason, that in the second battle too, the Philistines…
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Derech Hayam – lecture 6
We will make a linguistic comparison between the two battles of “Even HaEzer”, which were 20 years apart and in different places, but the Tanach tells of them in adjacent chapters and calls the two places “Even HaEzer”. The Tanach conveys a clear message here: that Israel’s perception in the first battle – that the…