posts so far for parshas Terumah

2012

1. Terumah sources, 2012 edition -- updated and improved.


2011

1. Teruma sources -- further expanded. For example, many more meforshei Rashi.
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2. Why I am in favor of murex trunculus techelet. Part one and part two.
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3. Should one study secular subjects, independently of Torah?  Is the Maharsham correct that a talmid chacham should gain all secular knowledge from Torah, parallel to the menorah which was beaten out of one piece of molten gold?
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4. The extra vav that wasn't -- As it appears in Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Chizkuni. See also this earlier post, by the same title.
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5. How does Onkelos translate Tachash?  A strange word. Is it an animal or a color?
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6. How does *Rav Yosef* translate Tachash?  We saw in the previous post that sasgona is sky-blue. Did Rav Yosef, the expert Targumist, get this wrong? There are numerous other difficulties with the gemara, especially when compared with the parallel Yerushalmi. This post presents an admittedly extremely speculative reconstruction of the original sugya, in which a number of issues are resolved, and tala ilan becomes kala ilan.
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7. All who add, subtract --  How to understand a gemara in Sanhedrin, about a pasuk in parshat Trumah.
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8. The well of Miriam, miraculously growing acacia trees --  An interpretation from Baal HaTurim, of trees growing wherever they went, conflicts with a midrash that Yaakov needed to plant acacia (or rather, cedar) trees for the mishkan. Can we resolve the contradiction?

2010

1. Terumah sources -- revamped, with more than 100 meforshim on the parsha and haftarah.
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2. Are the Samaritans right about the spelling of תיעשה? Of course, it would not just be the Samaritans, but various masoretes masoretic texts as well. And it is possible that the malei spelling stems from misunderstanding a midrash.
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3. What was bothering Rabbi Yosef Ibn Caspi? Continuing the conversation on a post in Mishpatim. How Rashbam differing from Chazal is not the same as Rashi differing from Chazal. And considering how Ibn Caspi onegrof would potentially argue with the conclusions of Chazal.

2009

1. Take for me -- part of the running commentary. What is the ultimate purpose of the mishkan? Why bother with gold and silver? Isn't this focus on externalities, and the golden statues of keruvim, at odds with the message at the end of parshat Yitro, where the altar could even be of earth, and where idols (perhaps imbued with a manifestation of a deity above) were disallowed?
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2. Terumah sources -- links by perek and aliyah to an online Mikraos Gedolos, plus a whole slew of meforshim on the parsha and haftara.

2008

• The identity of the tachach -- is it even an animal? if it is, what is it?

2006

• The Mishkan Reflecting A Changed Relationship With Hashem
• A midrash which resonates, with no additions from me. Morasha/Meorasa. Before marriage, the chasan must visit his father-in-law's house to visit his bride, but afterwards, she lives with him. See inside.
• The Identification of Izzim
• as goats' hair. Or perhaps as other sundry bright and intense dyes and cloths.
• The Identification of Techelet
• As blue or black. And how the Karaite approach of ignoring tradition for the meaning of color, trying instead to deduce it from analysis of the root, is extremely misguided. And the meaning of the Rambam's identification. And more.
• Tekhelet as Black as Kohl?
• Further analysis of Rambam. Kohl is kochal, a Biblical cosmetic. But what color is it?

2005

• You have to see it to understand it
• How words are not enough.
• The Extra Vav That Wasn't
• I left this open at the end, with a to-do list. But a discussion of how Rashi comments that a vav is extra and superfluous, and why this is troubling, since we do not have this vav in our Chumashim

2004

• Difference between construction of Mishkan and Bet HaMikdash
• now with a comment by meanderings!
• Why was the Mishkan entirely voluntary while the Temple was obligatory? Some thoughts.

2003

• Inside Like the Outside
• From the somewhat dry material of the description of the mishkan, Chazal find homiletic gold. Just as the ark must be covered with gold inside and out, so must man. Learning Torah is not enough. One also has to be a moral and righteous person, with fear of Heaven, and in fact, Torah is just a means to that end - belief in, fear of, and service of Hashem.

to be continued...