DAS Blog

This week's Torah portion contains what are called by many "the cultic 10 commandments" and also contains the "covanent of mercy". For discussion -- why does the covenent of mercy include a promise that God, while merciful, does not remit punishment? Does this relate to the saying "those who are merciful to the cruel are cruel to the merciful"?

Some, of course, following the Rabbinic tradition of wondering if the Torah originally had more than 5 Books, would ascribe the cultic 10 commandments to another "lost" book of Torah, while others consider these 10 commandments to be the E version of the 10 commandments, which is interesting given the prohibition about Ashera worship (I've already told y'all my theories about that). So what was the history of the transition from Canaan to Israel/Judea? Can we take Joshua at face value? Judges? Was it a peasant revolt? And what does it say about this history knowing that the cultic 10 commandments, which form the heart of monotheistic religious practice as it existed in those days, comes not from the relatively true-to-monotheism South, but from the North?

And speaking of "from the North", anybody out there wanna touch upon the Haftarah in the comments? Some would say Israel's victory in 1967 was a sign straight from this reading, but where is there a city called "Multitudes"?