Weekly Email by Rabbi Moss

Scientific Proof of the Torah

Sunday, April 30, 2017 - 10:39 PM

Question of the Week:

Do you still hold on to the belief that the Torah is divine? Literary experts and historians have compared the Bible to other writings of 3000 years ago (when the Torah was supposedly given by G-d) and said that its style doesn't fit in to the literature of that time frame, and must have been written much later. How can you ignore a fact that has been scientifically proven?

Answer:

Did you hear about the recent study on frogs? Scientists took a sample of over one hundred frogs of various species and did the following test:

They placed each frog on a table, crept up behind it and shouted, "Jump!" The frog jumped.

Then they cut off one leg, and again shouted ju… Read More »

Haunted by the Holocaust

Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - 1:11 AM

Question of the Week: --

I am a grandchild of Holocaust survivors but I feel haunted as if I went through it myself. I regularly see images of Auschwitz in dreams and flashes. I am sometimes even scared to tell people I am Jewish. It seems so ridiculous to be this way here in Australia in 2017. Am I crazy?

Answer:

You are not crazy. You are a sensitive Jewish soul, and what you are experiencing is not uncommon. You are experiencing the vertical connection.

All Jewish souls are connected. We are more than one family, we are one soul continuum. No matter what affiliation a Jew has or hasn't, every Jewish soul is connected. This connection transcends both time and space. We are horizontally connected to every Jew … Read More »

Does Hitting Your Computer Screen Help?

Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - 9:13 PM

Question of the Week:

At my seder no one understands Hebrew, so we read the Haggadah in English. My cousin who is fluent in Hebrew says that we miss much of the richness and depth of the story by reading it in translation. Apparently there are deeper lessons that can only be found in the Hebrew. What does he mean?

Answer:

In every English version of the Haggadah that I have seen, there is one word that is always translated incorrectly.

When listing the Ten Plagues that smote the Egyptians, second one in Hebrew is called Tzefardeya. This is always translated as Frogs. But the original Hebrew is in the singular. The translation should be Frog.

Now indeed, it is a little awkward to transla… Read More »