I discuss the parsha with Rabbi Rabbs Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam.
I put together these challenges for Rabbi Rabbs:
Parashat Vayeshev (Genesis 37-40):
* Gen. 37:13 Why are the brothers pasturing at Shechem? Didn’t they wipe out the Shechemites? Would it not be dangerous for them there?
* Gen. 37:35. Jacob says he wants to go down to Sheol. What and where is Sheol?
* Why does the Torah include the unsavory Judah – Tamar story? Why must our holy Torah contain so much sex? It doesn’t seem very spiritual.
* The Torah does not condemn Tamar for being a hooker and it does not condemn Judah for hiring her.
AS: “Of his own free will, Judah would never have united with her, so an angel forced him into the path of a “harlot” to begin the creation of the Davidic dynasty.”
* When Onan spills his seed (Gen. 38:9), does this mean coitus interruptus or unnatural intercourse?
