Vayeira

Parshaht Vayeira, Exodus 6:2-9:35 וָאֵרָא a.k.a. Va’eira

It’s the Time, Stupid!

There is a continuous thread about the mastery of time that weaves through the last chapters of the book of Genesis (Bereshit) and continues through the beginning of the book of Exodus (Shemot). The story of Joseph’s incarceration ends with his successful interpretation of the dreams of the Pharaoh’s chief butler and the chief baker. Joseph's genius was not only in interpreting ordinary objects (tendrils of grapes and baskets of bread) as symbols of the units of time but in understanding that the engagement in time (manifested in the chief butler’s personally squeezing the grapes into the cup and placing the cup in Pharaoh’s hand) symbolized life for the chief butler and the passivity of the chief baker (who dreamt of baskets of bread sitting on his head, with birds eating from the baskets) [...]

Sensing Spirituality

Scientists do not use the term “spirituality” not only because it is not clearly defined, but because one cannot detect it, measure it, prove or disprove its existence with any laboratory equipment. The number one argument against anything spiritual is that it has never been detected in any laboratory experiment. Needless to say, this argument is silly. To detect something in a laboratory, we need equipment that is appropriate for what we are seeking to detect. One does not detect sound with a microscope or light with a microphone. Even using generally appropriate instruments, such as a microphone for sound detection, the equipment must be fine-tuned to the particular type of sound. One cannot detect ultrasound (>20kHz) with a microphone that can only pick up audible sounds (20 Hz – 20 KHz). To [...]

Archives

Categories

DON’T MISS A BEAT

Be the first to know when we publish a new post.

Go to Top