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Birthday

Today’s word, ‘yom hu•le•det’, birthday, is considered a happy day in the lives of individuals − at least up to a certain accumulation of these days for some of us. Until the recent seven or eight decades, many Sephardic Jews did not keep track of the exact calendar...

Biblical Holiday; a good day

Today’s expression, Yom Tov, has two meanings: religious and day-to-day secular. The phrase ‘Yom Tov’ literally means ‘a good day’. Nowadays it can be used as its literal expression suggests, such as in the blessing, ‘have a good day.’ This kind of blessing was not...

Leviathan, whale

Yesterday and today we’ve been discussing two large animals that are described in the Bible as creatures with monstrous dimensions. The first is the uncertain animal that is called in the Bible ‘be•he•mot,’ Behemoth. Today, we’ll talk about the second animal, the...

Behemoth, beasts

The first is the uncertain animal that is called in the Bible ‘be•he•mot,’ Behemoth. The first problem with this creature is that its description does not exactly fit any known animal. Throughout the ages, commentators tried to figure out whether it is a hippopotamus,...

Gazelle, Doe, Zibiah

Today is a beautiful animal that is also referred to as a ‘splendor of youth.’ This is the ‘tzvi’ and its female, ‘tzvia.’ We saw earlier this month that the ‘dove’ is mentioned as the female beloved imagery. The ‘tzvi’ is also imagery for both male and female...