1Why This Commentary?
113What Is a Miracle?
2Who Is This Torah Commentary For?
114Abraham’s Character
3The Torah Is Not Man-Made
115The Patriarchs and Later Jewish Law
4Man-Made or God-Made: Why It Matters
116The Divine Messengers Hint Who They Are
5How Was the Torah Transmitted?
117Why God Changes Sarah’s Words
6Reason, Torah, and God
118The Purpose of Jewish Chosenness
7Why Read This Commentary?
119The Great Torah Innovation: A Moral God
8A Few Details
120Why Didn’t God Call on the People of Sodom to Repent?
9Preface
121God Is Morally Challenged—a First in Human History
10Essay: The First Verse—a First in Human History
122It Takes More Than One to Do Great Good; But a Single Person Can Do Immense Evil
11On the Question “Who Created God?”
123There Weren’t Even Ten Righteous People in Sodom
12Essay: God’s Existence
124The Men of Sodom Seek to Rape the Strangers
13Essay: Do Science and Genesis Conflict?
125What Was the Great Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?
14Essay: Why God Is Depicted in Male Terms
126It Is the Sin That Causes the Suffering—Not the Punishment
15Boys Take Rules From Men
127No Matter How Bad, Most People Don’t Leave Their Homelands
16Males Need Male Role Models
128Why Did God Save Lot?
17The Male Is More Rule-Oriented
129Why Did Lot’s Wife Stop Fleeing?
18God Is Not within Nature. God Created Nature.
130What Does God “Remembered” Mean?
19God’s Name
131Why Did Lot’s Daughters Sleep with Him?
20The Bible Begins with the God of All the World, Not the Story of the Jews
132Once Again, the Perils of Alcohol
21Disorder—the Natural State of the World without God
133Chapter 20: God-Fearing Is a Moral Label and Can Apply to People outside of One’s Own Faith
22God Speaks and His Will Is Done
134We Choose When to Feel Hurt or Insulted
23Why Does God Declare His Creation “Good”?
135The Number Seven
24Essay: What Does “Day” Mean in Genesis 1?
136The Ultimate Test of Abraham
25Plants before the Sun?
137God Says “Please”
26The Sun and the Moon Dethroned as Gods
138Why Didn’t God Just Say, “Take Isaac”?
27Why “Sea Monsters” Are Mentioned
139Why Did Abraham Awaken Early to Go and Sacrifice His Son?
28The Creation of “Man”
140Why Didn’t Abraham Argue with God?
29The Creation of “the Man”
141Why God Tested Abraham This Way: The Universality of Human Sacrifice
30The Male-Female Distinction Is Part of God’s Order
142Good People Must Be as Willing to Sacrifice as Bad People Are
31Either Man Will Rule over Nature, or Nature Will Rule over Man
143Essay: Faith Demands Sacrifice
32From Creating to Making
144The Longest Chapter in Genesis Is about . . . a Marriage
33Holy Time—Unique to the Torah
145Essay: Goodness Is More Important Than Anything Else
34Two Words for “Work”
146Life’s Three Mirrors
35A Second Description of Creation—Details about Man’s Creation
147Observe How a Person Treats Strangers
36The Only Time (but One) the Torah Conjoins Both of God’s Names
148Gratitude: The Root of Both Goodness and Happiness
37The World Needs Both Mercy and Justice
149The Bible’s First Reference to Love
38Essay: Does the Torah Advocate Vegetarianism?
150Essay: The Afterlife
39Essay: It Is Not Good for Man to Be Alone
151To Ishmael’s Credit
40Animals Cannot Replace Humans
152Once More, to Ishmael’s Credit
41Essay: Marry and Become a Man
153Isaac, the Unknown Patriarch
42Is the Garden of Eden Literally True?
154Once Again, the Younger Outshines the Older
43Misquoting God or Man Can Lead to Catastrophic Consequences
155Is Hunting a Moral Issue?
44The Unique Power of the Eye
156Was Jacob Morally Wrong in Getting Esau to Sell the Birthright?
45We Are All Adam and Eve
157What Does Belief in God Mean?
46The Woman’s Desire for a Man
158Humanity Will Be Blessed through the Jews
47Essay: Woman’s Desire for a Dominant Man
159On Trusting Strangers
48What Does It Mean When Man Becomes like God?
160To Envy or to Emulate the Successful? That Is the Question.
49Why Didn’t Adam and Eve Protest Their Expulsion from Eden?
161Human Intervention May Be Warranted to Bring about God’s Plans
50When Do Intentions Matter?
162The Woman in This Family Is the Strongest Person in It
51Do We Envy or Emulate Those Who Surpass Us?
163A Plausible Defense of Jacob’s Deceptive Behavior
52Goodness and Happiness
164Younger Brothers in the Torah
53Essay: The Most Empowering Idea in Life
165On Favoring One Child over Another
54Male and Female Are Equal—and Constitute a Divine Distinction
166Human-God Contact
55Essay: The Problem of the Long Lives
167God in Our Lives
56We Need Both the Good Urge and the Bad Urge
168Essay: Can We Expect God to Protect Us?
57People Are Guilty for Their Bad Actions, Not Their Bad Thoughts
169Essay: On Making Deals with God
58Does God Know the Future?
170The Unfair (but Undeniable) Importance of Female Beauty
59God: “The Most Tragic Figure in the Bible”
171Working for—and Sleeping with—an Illusion
60Essay: Why Would a Good God Destroy the World?
172Essay: Is Life Meaningful without Children?
61Essay: Why Were Animals Destroyed in the Flood?
173What Is a Man to Do When His Wife Lashes out in Pain?
62Essay: People Are to Be Judged by the Standards of Their Time, Not of Ours
174Belief in Idols and Belief in God
63The Uniqueness of the Torah’s Flood Story
175Essay: On Lying
64Noah Was Not a Jew
176Everyone Has Crises of Faith
65Is There a Relationship between How People Treat Animals and How They Treat People?
177Essay: The Meaning and Importance of the Name “Israel” (“Struggle with God”)
66Why Didn’t Noah Argue with God?
178How to Preserve National Memory
67God Made Nature for Man
179Why Did the Brothers Weep?
68Unlike Pagan Gods, God Doesn’t Need Food
180Jacob Owes Esau Amends
69God’s Three Attempts to Have Man Do Good
181Chapter 34: Rape Followed by Loving Words
70Essay: The Belief People Are Basically Good Is Foolish and Dangerous
182Physical Reminders to Be Grateful
71Essay: On Having Many Children
183Monotheism Was Not Adopted Overnight
72Man May Eat Animals
184How Torah Monotheism Changed the World
73Humane Treatment of Animals Is Universally Binding
185On Regarding God as Provider
74The Ban on Consuming Blood
186God Directly Affirms Jacob’s Name-Change to Israel
75Essay: The Death Penalty for Murder Is a Moral Cornerstone of Society
187Why Does Reuben Sleep with His Father’s Concubine?
76Essay: When Good People Have Bad Children
188Esau Was Not a Bad Man
77The God of the Torah Is the God of All Nations
189God and the Torah Care about All Nations (and Individuals)
78Seven Sons of Japheth
190The Torah and Later Judaism’s Attitudes toward Conversion
79Seven Grandsons of Japheth
191If People Learned from Others’ Mistakes . . . the World Would Be a Beautiful Place
80Four Sons of Ham
192When Family Communications Break Down
81Seven Grandsons of Ham
193The Brothers’ Resentment of Joseph
82And the Mighty Nimrod
194Is Jacob’s Apparent Reference to Joseph’s Dead Mother a Torah Inconsistency?
83Seven Sons of Mizraim (Egypt)
195Envy and Festering Anger Lead to Bad Outcomes
84Eleven Descendants of Canaan and Their Land
196Jacob Tries to Have His Sons Get along
85Descendants of Shem
197God or Coincidence: Faith Is a Choice
86Essay: The Self-Destructive Pursuit of Fame
198“Brother-in-law” (Levirate) Marriage
87Essay: Is World Unity a Good Idea?
199What Was Onan’s Sin?
88The Torah Mistrusts Cities
200Deceptions in Genesis
89Why Did God Choose Abram?
201Tamar’s Acting like a Prostitute
90Abram’s First Test
202Joseph as a Paradigm of the Jewish People
91All Nations Will Be Blessed through One Nation
203Essay: Why Was Joseph Considered Particularly Righteous?
92Those Who Bless and Those Who Curse the Jews . . .
204Why Joseph Refused Mrs. Potiphar
93The Torah’s View of Wealth
205Did Potiphar Believe His Wife?
94It Is OK for Believers to Have Doubts—Even Abram Did
206Seeing One’s Talents as Gifts from God
95Essay: Abram Tells Sarai to Lie: Was That Moral?
207We Cannot Rely on Miracles
96Abram Was a Man of Peace, Not a Pacifist
208Memory Must Be Deliberately Kept Alive
97God Gives the Land of Israel to the Jews Forever
209Chapter 41: Essay: In Our Personal Life It Is Good to Forget
98The Torah Is Earth-Bound (as Well as Heaven-Bound)
210Chapter 43: Essay: Does “Chosen” Mean Superior?
99The Term “Hebrew”
211Another Pre-Torah Practice
100A Man Who Loves Peace Goes to War
212“Love the Stranger” and “Love Your Neighbor”—Both Begin with Family
101The Only Antidote to Fear
213Chapter 45: Essay: God and Free Will
102Essay: The Importance of Both Faith and Works
214Essay: How Not to Be Afraid
103A Torah Inconsistency?
215Why Few Women Are Listed
104The Torah Implies an Afterlife
216The Moral Power of Empathy
105Only Abraham Dies in Peace
217Life Is a Journey—to Where?
106The Moral Basis for the Expulsion of the Canaanites
218Jacob Describes His Life as Brief and Hard. He Speaks for Most of Us.
107Sarai’s Well-Intentioned, but Bad, Idea
219Lifespans in Genesis Mean Much More Than the Number of Years Lived
108The Torah Does Not Hide the Flaws of Its Heroes
220The Importance of Jacob’s Condemnation of Simeon and Levi
109God Cares about Everyone—Non-Jew as Well as Jew
221On Controlling Anger
110Hagar, an Egyptian, Receives a Unique Gift from God
222About the Author
111The Covenant: Jews Are to Keep God Alive in the World and God Is to Keep the Jews Alive
223Notes
112Essay: The Case for—and Meaning of—Jewish Circumcision