Answers from an Orthodox Jew

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That’s an interesting question. I don’t think so. I think the intensive plural is reserved for more abstract nouns. It’s rare. The only other one I can think of off the top of my head is b’alim, which can mean “master” in the singular as well as plural. Perhaps also “chayyim” life.
 
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It sounds reasonable. As long as it’s clear the other “powers” are not reals gods nor independent powers.
 
Yes, that’s a nice source of information. I forgot about behemoth. But those words are anomalies, indicated by a plural-looking noun modified by a singular verb or adjective. I don’t see any reason to assume toohot is singular, more than any other plural noun in Tanach.
 
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I apologize if I asked this question to you before, but what is to your overall review/outlook of the Jewish Study Bible published by Oxford? Thank you.
 
The killing of Ish-bosheth was during the time of David’s ascendancy. The killers thought they would be praised for killing Saul’s son but instead David had them executed as murderers. But I don’t know where “a kind of power” rose up. Not sure what that’s referring to.
 
StJoseph8 said:
I apologize if I asked this question to you before, but what is to your overall review/outlook of the Jewish Study Bible published by Oxford? Thank you.
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I had never heard of it but it looks like it would be pretty interesting. I’m sure I would disagree with a large amount of the commentary since its approach seems to be from a historical-critical perspective. The translation it uses, the JPS version, is basically fine, though I might quibble with a few of their decisions about translation.

Lest I enter into another thread arguing about Bible criticism, let me just state the fact that there is zero physical evidence for Biblical books in a form substantially different from the way we have them now - no fragments have been found that would point to any of the supposed works of the supposed multiple authors of the Bible existing as an independent body of literature. The entire field of Biblical criticism rests on diverse and mutually contradictory theories of literary criticism. Beyond that, it’s pointless to argue, because they are arguments from authority, which I reject. “X number of academic Bible scholars say Y.” Very nice. You believe they are right and I believe they are wrong. I believe my position is intellectually coherent and reject the label of obscurantism, but I am not here on CAF to defend my beliefs, so I want to leave it at that.
 
In your earlier post you mentioned a beheading. That was what made me think of Ishbosheth. In this episode of the attack by the Moabites (2 Kings 3), their king loses the battle and then sacrifices his own son, but there is no explicit mention of any beheading.
 
Most of the commentators seem to say the straightforward meaning is that the King of Moav killed the son of the King of Edom, who was allied with Israel, and that enraged the King of Edom and he stopped helping the Israelites so they were forced to retreat.
 
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Moses613 said:
As far as God’s judgment, I won’t presume to say. I respect Christians and I think He will have mercy on them according to their actions, and not hold them accountable for errors they can’t free themselves of. And I’m pretty sure the same goes in the other direction; that’s what Nostra Aetatae was about.
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Yes. At the risk of sounding like a simpleton, God is bigger than all of us. I am not talking from universalist standpoint because I believe God has set forth a clear path in regards to our relationship to Him. But God is not the Church. If we thought we could contain Him then we would be idolterors. It is completely reasonable that God would have love and mercy for those who search for Him and are good people.

During Easter I read Mary Boys, a nun and scholar whose work focuses on Nostra Aetatae and the need for the Church to go even further in repairing our relationship with the Jewish people. She is awesome.
 
רציתי רק לצטט כאלו מפרשי התנ"ך כפשוטו של מקרא ולא דרש, כדי שלא להכנס בויכוחים על האם האמינו ישראל שיש ממש בע"ז.

@Evenshlomo points out there are other homiletic interpretations of this verse, but I wanted to keep things simple since none of them indicate henotheism.
 
Hi, I have a question about Jewish belief in the Messianic era. This question might be purely speculative, as in looking this up, I didn’t realize there were such widespread beliefs concerning the conditions of the world during this time period.

My question(s) stem from a video I just watched about the Korban Todah.
  1. Will the Korban Todah be the only Temple Sacrifice of the Messianic Era?
  2. And If so, will the reason for bringing this offering be different than in ages past? Specifically, will there still be life-threatening peril during the Messianic reign? I wanted to contrast or compare this with the Christian belief in the Messianic reign on earth, where the belief is in total peace and restoration of all things, where “The Lion shall lie down with the Lamb”, etc., and where death itself will be no more.
And not related to the Korban Todah: since the Messiah will be only a person chosen by God for a specific mission, will the messiah himself die and this reign be over? If so, what next? Will the Garden of Eden be restored on earth at some point? Or will the Olam HaBa be purely an eternity spent in Heaven in the presence of HaShem?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
 
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Autumn-Smoke said:
If so, what next? Will the Garden of Eden be restored on earth at some point? Or will the Olam HaBa be purely an eternity spent in Heaven in the presence of HaShem?
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That is a major point of dispute among medieval Jewish scholars!

The main idea is that we cannot be sure exactly what the Messianic era will look like. It will be peaceful and everyone will be able to serve God. According to Maimonides, people will still die, after which they will spend eternity “in Heaven in the presence of HaShem.”

As far as the korbanos, there are also various contradictory statements from the Sages about what will be implemented. My personal opinion is that the most straightforward understanding is that all sacrifices will be restored as before. That corresponds with the words we say in our daily prayers, “Restore the service to Your Sanctuary and accept with love and favor Israel’s fire-offerings and prayer…”
 
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