The LORD said to Moses, “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has an infectious skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.” Numbers 5:1-3 Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I stumbled across that the English word “quarantine” comes from a Latin root meaning “forty”. This word was first used when ships containing people or goods would “quarantine” at a port for […]
Tag Archives: Ash Wednesday
Ash Valentines
Today is Valentines Day and Ash Wednesday. Can I relate them somehow? We’ve been learning in class about social identity in Biblical times. Western culture is individualistic. I do this and that. I define who I am. The ancient Biblical world did not see it that way. The smallest unit of identity was the family, the beit av (house of the father). This is why you see people frequently identified as the son of so-and-so (possibly going back multiple generations). When the gospel of Matthew introduces Jesus, he begins with a long genealogy to show Jesus’ pedigree. A person is […]