Who Was Serah? Originally Published January 1-2, 2021.
Serah (שֶׂרַח בַּת אָשֵׁר) was the daughter of Asher, who was a son of Jacob. We read about her briefly last week, in Vayiggash (Genesis 46:17), as we read the names of Jacob’s 53 grandsons and this one granddaughter being among the 70 to be transported to Egypt. Interestingly enough, we read about her again […]
Who Was Ephraim? And Why Were His Bones Fused? Originally Published December 25-26, 2020.
Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם) was the younger brother of Manasseh, and they were the sons of Joseph and Asenath, who was given to Joseph as a gift from Pharoah. In Genesis 48:13 et seq., when Jacob finally gets to see Joseph (and I use the term broadly, as Jacob’s eyes were dim by that point - something […]
What Is Targum? Originally Published December 18-19, 2020.
“Targum” (תַּרְגּוּם) is Aramaic for interpretation, translation, or version. Originally referring to a spoken translation of Tanakh into the language of the listeners, made by a meturgeman (מְתוּרגְמָן), a translator, Targum, the practice of delivering Scripture to the masses in their (our) own language, began around the end of the first century BCE. Word has […]
How to have Uncomfortable Conversations with Billy Planer (Derekh)
Wednesday, January 6, 2020 7:30 p.m. Join this conversation about having uncomfortable conversations in a world that can feel more divided than ever. Billy Planer, founder of Etgar 36 which hosts summer trips for Jewish teens about uncomfortable conversations and our Derekh Civil Rights Journey in 2019, is an expert in bridging the divide. It is time to […]
Who Was Hirsz Mojżesz Wonsal? Originally Published December 11-12, 2020.
Born on December 12, 1881, in Krasnosielc, Poland, this fellow would later be known as Harry Warner, one of nine children born to Benjamin Abraham and Pearl Wonsal (later Warner). Harry was the eldest of the four brothers - with Albert (1883-1967, born in Baltimore), Sam (1884-1927, born in London, Ontario), and eventually Jack (1892-1978, […]
How Many Years Will Noam Chomsky Celebrate on December 7th? Originally Published December 4-5, 2020.
Avram Noam Chomsky was born on December 7th in 1928 in the East Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia (generally pronounced by locals as O’Clane) to Ze’ev “William” and Elsie (Simonofsky) Chomsky. Having fled Russia to Baltimore in 1913, Ze’ev did manual labor and worked in Hebrew elementary schools before attending college and thereafter moving to […]