Bible Stories

Last month we discussed the lion and the daughter of the farmer/king. In our story today we shall encounter another lion. The tale, whose origins come from North Africa - began with three wise men from a tribe who had become bored because they thought that the other tribesmen weren’t intelligent enough for them.

A Biblical Hebrew student of my husband’s asked him to tell a Jewish story every month, preferably a Hasidic one.

The four cardinal directions (Hebrew:ארבע רוחות השמיים) are the directions of north, east, south and west.

The Hebrew Bible mentioned  the four cardinal directions. The names of the directions seem to be associated with physical landmarks for the ancient Israelites living in the region of Judea.

The names of the 4 directions are different in the Bible :

"The tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the ark-cover that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the Tent;"

"אֵת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, וְאֶת-הָאָרֹן לָעֵדֻת, וְאֶת-הַכַּפֹּרֶת, אֲשֶׁר עָלָיו; וְאֵת, כָּל-כְּלֵי הָאֹהֶל."

Exodus 31:7

Even haShetiya (Hebrew : אבן השתייה), known as The Foundation Stone , is a holy stone located in the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

According to the Midrash, Even Ha'Shetiya is the location of the Holy of Holies in the Temple, and is the holiest site in Judaism.

"Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand." (Daniel 5:1)

Belshazzar's Feast (Hebrew: משתה בלשאצר), also known as "The writing on the wall", is an idiom, taken from the Book of Daniel  chapter 5. This chapter has been written in Aramaic.
According to the Biblical story, Belshazzar was the last king of Babylon at the time of the Judean captivity .He resigned after Nebuchadnezzar's death.

In Judaism, there are many significance numbers. One of these numbers is number 4.In the Haggadah , there is much significance to the number four(Hebrew: מספר ארבע).

The Passover Seder is particularly structured around fours: the Four Questions, the Four Sons and four cups of wine.

During the Seder meal it is a requirement to drink four cups of wine .The four cups symbolize the deliverance promised by G-d.

In the Haggadah we find four sons (Hebrew: ארבעת הבנים). The four sons represent the four personality types which exist within the Jewish People:

- The "Chacham" - The "Wise" Son
-  The "Rasha" - The "Wicked" Son
- The "Tam" - The "Honest" Son
- The "She’Aino Yodea Lishol" - The Son who Doesn’t Know Enough to Ask.

Matzah (Hebrew: מצה ) is an unleavened bread.It  is eaten only  on Passover. The Matzah was one of the foods the Jews were commanded to eat in Egypt along with the paschal lamb as mentioned in Exodus 12:8:

" וְאָכְלוּ אֶת-הַבָּשָׂר, בַּלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה: צְלִי-אֵשׁ וּמַצּוֹת, עַל-מְרֹרִים יֹאכְלֻהוּ."

" And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it."

The poor man's lamb (Hebrew:כבשת הרש) is one of the best known Biblical allegories.
This allegory can be found in 2 Samuel 12 and it begins with G-d sending Nathan the prophet to speak to David about his sin ( Killing Uraih and taking his wife).