The Hebrew Bible uses two words and a million synonyms for God. El, or Elohim, simply mean God. The second word, the Hebrew consonants YHVH, is full of mystery, the name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush, possibly the past, present, and future tense of “to be,” squeezed together in one word – like a bush that is burning but not consumed.
An unconventional reading of the “Binding of Isaac” story (Genesis 22) in the Bible can be interpreted to mean that the god who told Abraham to sacrifice his only son was an imposter, not the One God.
The 50th anniversary of my Bar Mizvah is Oct. 20, 2011 on the Western calendar; on the Hebrew (lunar) calendar, it is Shabbos Lech L’cha, which this year falls on Nov. 5. I’ll mark the occasion by reading a few verses from the Torah.
Hebrew, as spoken by native Israelis, is so ugly, it might be why the Arabs hate Israelis. Circumcision might be good medicine, but nobody likes a bris: a catered house party, where friends come to watch.