image courtesy of chabad.org
Nachshon leads the way as the Israelites cross the Sea of Reeds
So why are those of us who follow the tradition of the Israelite faith referred to by others (and ourselves) as Jews and not Israelites? There's a straightforward historical explanation based on the location of the Temples in Jerusalem, center of the tribal lands of Judah. (The Hebrew word for someone from Judea, Yehudi,
came to be synonymous with "Israelite," a person belonging to the covenant between God and the Patriarchs.)
But to the early rabbis, that merely begged the question: Why did God choose the tribe of Judah to host the Temples, and why did God name Judah's descendant, David, as founder of the
Israelite royal dynasty?
The rabbis' answer is a character by the name Nachshon, a leader of the tribe of Judah mentioned in this week's Torah portion (Naso, Numbers 4:21-7:89). Earlier, the rabbis say, Nachshon played a key role in the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. We'll talk
about it tonight at Nafshenu's weekly Bible study.
PLEASE JOIN US online from 7-8pm, at our regular Zoom link: bit.ly/NafTorah. We'll be meeting every Thursday night this month as well to talk about the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish texts.
-Rabbi David
Goodman
rebdovid@nafshenu.org 248-508-0874
