Tag Archives: Angel of Death

Curses on the Primordial Serpent

What were the ten curses that God decreed upon the Nachash, the Primordial Serpent in the Garden of Eden? How do they relate to the curses on Adam and Eve, and what does it all have to do with the Sabbath and the coming Messianic Age?

This video is an excerpt from a full-length class on Feminism and Judaism, available here.

For more on the connection between the Serpent and Mashiach, see here.

The Bone of Resurrection and the City of Immortals

This week’s parasha, Vayetze, begins with Jacob’s famous vision of the Heavenly Ladder. This occurred at a place called Beit-El (literally “House of God”), which our Sages identified with the Temple Mount, where the House of God would be built in the future. The Torah makes sure to point out that the place was originally called “Luz” (Genesis 28:19). The same word appears one more time in this week’s parasha, when Jacob stimulates his sheep to produce different spots, and uses luz as a visual cue for them (Genesis 30:37). Rashi comments that luz is a type of nut, and says that in (Old) French it is called “coldre”. The Old French Anglo-Norman Dictionary defines “coldre” as a hazelnut. In Modern Hebrew, egozei luz refers to hazelnuts, too. Alternatively, it may refer to an almond, as the Midrash (Eichah Rabbah 12:5) says:

“…and the almond shall blossom” (Ecclesiastes 12:5) Rabbi Levi says this refers to the luz of the vertebrae. Hadrian (may his bones be crushed and his name blotted out) asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah: “From what will man ‘blossom’ in the future?” He replied: “From the luz of the vertebrae.” He said to him: “Prove it to me.” [Rabbi Yehoshua] had one brought; he placed it in water but it did not dissolve; he put it in fire, but it was not burnt; he put it in a mill but it was not ground. He placed it on an anvil and struck it with a hammer; the anvil split and the hammer was broken but all this had no effect on the luz.

The wicked Roman emperor Hadrian (who crushed the Bar Kochva Revolt, during which Rabbi Akiva was executed, among countless others) once questioned Rabbi Yehoshua as to how people could be resurrected in the future if their bodies completely decompose. Rabbi Yehoshua answered that there is a special, tiny, nut-like bone in the human body, along the vertebrae, that is indestructible. From this bone, God will rebuild the entire person. Anatomically-speaking, which bone is this? Continue reading

Identifying the Angel of Death

This week we begin reading the Torah anew with parashat Beresheet. Originally, God created a perfect world that was entirely good. He warned Adam not to consume of the Tree of Knowledge, for that would introduce evil—and death—into the world. The First Couple consumed the fruit anyway, thus putting a time limit on their lives, and the lives of all future human beings. A simple reading suggests that death only entered Creation at the time that Adam and Eve consumed the Forbidden Fruit. According to tradition, that took place on the Sixth Day, the self-same day that they were created. It was on the Sixth Day that God completed His work, and said that “behold, it was very good [tov me’od].” (Genesis 1:31) The Midrash (Beresheet Rabbah 9:5) states that Rabbi Meir would read these words not tov me’od, but rather tov mot, “death is good”! God, of course, foresaw all of human history from the very beginning, and intended for death to exist. Therefore, the existence of death, too, is a good thing.

On a deeper level, God had always intended for Adam and Eve to consume the Fruit. Continue reading