Happy with the Hebrew Bible!

I’m a Noahide woman, and I’ve decided that I’m just obsessed with the Hebrew Bible’s story of the 10 Plagues, the first Passover in Egypt, and the Exodus of the Israelites. And also with knowing about what the Jews were commanded to do from then on in commemoration of those events. From its observances to its story … it’s just amazing to me. I think a big part of my amazement is that when I was growing up as a little girl in a non-Torah religion, I thought I “knew” the story of Passover, but now I’m utterly stunned at how much of what I was taught wasn’t true. I can’t get over how different it really is!

Have you ever seen the animated movie “Prince of Egypt?” If so, that is exactly what I was wrongly taught (except that I wasn’t told the movie’s fake story that Tziporah was captured). To the “T”, it’s what I was taught. There’s no real depth to that wrong version … Whereas here and now, I read the accurately translated Chumash (Five Books of Moses) with the real explanations by Rashi and other Sages of the correct meanings of the verses. I make sure to read an edition that’s published by an authentic observant Jewish publisher (the Artscroll Stone Edition Hebrew Bible/Tanach) … and it blows me away! :-0

I also experience amazement with learning the stories of Creation and Noah from this Chumash, but not to the same degree. Do a lot of other Noahides also experience this? Do any other Noahide students come out from their false religions or beliefs, read the traditional Jewish (i.e. true) version of these stories, and just get blown away? I don’t mean to be redundant, but it’s so … awe-inspiring.

Every week (even if I stay home on Saturday morning instead of attending a local Orthodox synagogue service), I read that week’s Torah portion with the traditional explanations that are printed in my Artscroll Chumush book. Sometimes I find myself so interested in the explanations that I come up with more questions. For example, I learned from the explanation by Rashi on Exodus ch. 10 that while the plague of darkness was over Egypt, some of the Israelites were so assimilated into the pagan and lustful Egyptian culture that they didn’t merit – nor want – to leave. So G-d caused them to die and get buried during the darkness, while the Egyptians couldn’t see anything, but there was light for the Israelites who merited to live and be redeemed.

If those who were unworthy would have died during any of the other plagues, the Egyptians would have seen and would have said that G-d wasn’t making a difference between themselves and the Israelites. Also, I learned that the Israelites who were left living were asked by G-d (through Moses) to go into the Egyptian’s houses while the Egyptians were stricken with darkness, to see what valuables were there and where, but they didn’t take anything. That won them favor with the Egyptians after the darkness was over. That’s so cool! 

A big part of my interest with Passover is specifically that the religion I used to belong to reads their bible in a three-year cycle. The portion they were on when I really began to question their doctrine was the story of Moses and the Exodus. I had so many questions that went unanswered. I don’t remember which of their bible editions I was using at the time, but there were tons of things that didn’t make sense, and I asked about them. Repeatedly I was told, “You need to have more faith and stop asking these questions.”

In contrast to that, now that I am learning from Orthodox Jewish sources, these very same questions are highly encouraged! And they had the answers all along! The Hebrew Bible / Chumash that I read from now is the authentic text with the correct translation, so it doesn’t have the (now) obvious errors of the altered bible edition that I used to have. This is so cool! ^-^

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