Hebrew Bible

“And G-d blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it G-d ceased from all the work of creation that He had done.”

This verse introduces the idea of the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, sanctified for rest and devoted to the L-rd. This statement, together with the preceding verses in Genesis 2, form part of the Jewish liturgy used in the Sabbath prayer of the kiddush, as well as in the traditional Friday evening service.

“[G-d] took [Abram] outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He added, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ […] Then He said to him, ‘I am the L-rd who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession.’”

Here, G-d establishes a covenant with Abram, expressing the dual promises of descendants and the land. At this point, both promises seem almost unbelievable since Abram and his wife are too old to bear children and Abram does not yet own any portion of the land. Nevertheless, Abram believes G-d’s promise, entrusting himself to The Steadfast Love (Chesed) of G-d.

“Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: The L-rd, the G-d of your fathers, the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob, has sent me to you: This shall be My name forever, this My appellation for all eternity.”

Here, G-d speaks to Moses from the burning bush on Mount Sinai, instructing him to go to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of slavery. Although the personal name of G-d (represented in the above passage by the title “L-rd”) has already been used in previous Tanakh narratives, this is the first full explanation of that name, which in Hebrew appears to derive from G-d’s statement of absolute self-existence in the conversation with Moses. Here, G-d proclaims the Hebrew name underlying “L-rd” as the name by which the Israelites will know their G-d from that point forward.

“I am the L-rd your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them […] You shall not swear falsely by the name of the L-rd your G-d […] Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. […] Honor your father and your mother, that you may long endure on the land that the L-rd your G-d is assigning to you. You shall not murder.  You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female slave, or his ox or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

This passage relays the Ten Commandments, the core of the Mosaic law and the basic expression of the covenant stipulations that G-d expects the Israelites to keep. Moses delivers these commandments to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai after their escape from Egypt. The commandments are engraved in two stone tablets and placed in the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle. A parallel expression of the Ten Commandments can be found in Deuteronomy 5. The laws employ a parallel structure, with the repeated phrase “You shall not” emphasizing the importance of faithfulness in keeping these laws.

“The L-rd bless you and protect you! The L-rd deal kindly and graciously with you! The L-rd bestow His favor upon you and grant you peace!”

This is known as the Birkat Kohanim (“the priestly blessing”), a prayer of benediction that the high priest is enjoined to say over the people of Israel. It has become a major part of liturgical practice in later Jewish tradition, and it is emblematic of the multifaceted usage of the canon of scripture, not only as a set of books to be studied but also as an active and ongoing part of worship and devotional practices.

“Hear, O Israel! The L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd alone. You shall love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This is one of the most important passages in the Hebrew Bible, known as the Shema (from the Hebrew word for “hear”). It is a core part of Jewish liturgy and expresses the importance of the theme of faithfulness to the law. The commands to impress, recite, bind, and inscribe the law of G-d provide the basis for the Jewish use of tefillin (small cases for Torah texts to be bound on the body) and mezuzot (small repositories for Torah texts to be set in doorposts).

“They followed in Your steps, accepting Your pronouncements, when Moses charged us with the Teaching as the heritage of the congregation of Jacob.”

Here, we see a description of the Israelites’ reception of the Torah, drawn from Moses’ final blessing before his death. It describes the teaching of the law as an ongoing heritage for the Israelite people, here described not simply as a national unit but in the quasi-religious terminology of “congregation.” This passage is one of the 12 passages that a modern Jewish leader, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, selected as being the most important summaries of Jewish teaching and the most helpful to learn by heart.

“Be strong and resolute, for you shall apportion to this people the land that I swore to their fathers to assign to them. But you must be very strong and resolute to observe faithfully all the Teaching that My servant Moses enjoined upon you. Do not deviate from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”

The section of the Nevi’im in the Hebrew Bible opens with this divine injunction to Joshua, the new leader of the Israelites after Moses’ death. It restates the two sides of G-d’s covenant with Israel: on the one hand, the Israelites’ faithfulness to law of Moses, and on the other hand, G-d’s commitment to keep his promises toward them.

“But the L-rd said to Samuel, ‘Pay no attention to his appearance or his stature, for I have rejected him. For not as man sees [does the L-rd see]; man sees only what is visible, but the L-rd sees into the heart.’”

This quotation comes from the scene in which Samuel, the prophet and judge, is sent to anoint a new king of Israel after G-d rejects the kingship of Saul. Samuel is directed to go to the family of Jesse in Bethlehem, and although Samuel expects one of the strong older sons to be selected, it is the youngest son, David, who will be anointed. Here, G-d reminds Samuel of an important principle that applies to the whole perspective of the historical accounts in the Nevi’im: namely, that people are not assessed by their outward attributes but by whether their hearts are faithfully following G-d’s ways. This becomes the metric by which each subsequent king of Israel and Judah is judged.

“The L-rd declares to you that He, the L-rd, will establish a house for you. When your days are done and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own issue, and I will establish his kingship. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish his royal throne forever.”

In this passage, G-d (speaking through the prophet Nathan) addresses his promise to David, who had wanted to build a house for the L-rd—that is, a permanent temple to take the place of the tabernacle tent. In response, G-d declares that it is David who will receive a house (that is, a royal line of successors) and that a successor in that line will fulfill G-d’s promises, both by being a temple builder and by holding an everlasting kingship. The first part of this promise is fulfilled by David’s son Solomon, and in Jewish tradition, the second part applies to a future Messiah.

“‘Answer me, O L-rd, answer me, that this people may know that you, O L-rd, are G-d; for You have turned their hearts backward.’ Then fire from the L-rd descended and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the earth; and it licked up the water that was in the trench. When they saw this, all the people flung themselves on their faces and cried out: ‘The L-rd alone is G-d, the L-rd alone is G-d!’”

This is one of the most remembered scenes in the whole Hebrew Bible, wherein the prophet Elijah challenges the prophets of the Canaanite god Baal to a showdown on Mount Carmel. Elijah does this to address the looming problem of Israel’s unfaithfulness to G-d’s law since many people have gone over to the worship of pagan gods. Each side in the showdown makes efforts to call down fire from heaven, but only Elijah is successful. The repeated cry at the end of this passage emphasizes the singularity of G-d—at the core of Jewish theology is the idea, radical at the time, that there is only one G-d and that no other figure should be worshipped.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I beheld my L-rd seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of His robe filled the Temple. Seraphs stood in attendance on Him. Each of them had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his legs, and with two he would fly. And one would call to the other, ‘Holy, holy, holy! The L-rd of Hosts! His presence fills all the earth!’”

This is an example of a prophetic vision, taken from Isaiah’s account of his calling, in which he sees the throne of G-d and the angels (seraphs) around it. This passage, together with Ezekiel’s throne vision in Ezekiel 1, plays into a later Jewish devotional movement called Merkabah mysticism, which uses the chariot throne of G-d as a central image in the soul’s journey of divine contemplation.

“But now thus says the L-rd—who created you, O Jacob, who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I will redeem you; I have singled you out by name, you are Mine. When you pass through water, I will be with you; through streams, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be scorched; through flame, it shall not burn you. For I the L-rd am your G-d, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

This passage is characteristic of the uplifting tone of the second half of Isaiah, which promises a coming restoration and assures the Israelites of the certainty of G-d’s love for them. A loose chiastic structure can be seen in this passage, with the opening and closing statements of identity and belonging appearing to match one another.

“He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the L-rd requires of you: Only to do justice, and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your G-d; then will your name achieve wisdom.”

This passage offers a glimpse of the many ethical applications of the prophetic books, which focus not only (or even primarily) on predicting the future but also on expressing G-d’s message to the people of Israel in their present circumstances. This statement sums up the theme of faithfulness to G-d’s law in a set of simple ethical principles.

“Shout for joy, Fair Zion, cry aloud, O Israel! Rejoice and be glad with all your heart, Fair Jerusalem! The L-rd has annulled the judgment against you, He has swept away your foes. Israel’s Sovereign the L-rd is within you; you need fear misfortune no more.”

Although the prophets regularly paint a dire picture of the judgments of G-d in response to sin, there is a repeated pattern in the texts that always returns to a foundational understanding of G-d’s unchanging love as a reason for joy and for hope in the future. Here in Zephaniah, as in many of the prophecies, the warnings give way to a glimpse of a coming period of blessing, grounded in G-d’s deliverance of the people and the abiding presence of the L-rd in their midst.

“Happy is the man who has not followed the counsel of the wicked, or taken the path of sinners, or joined the company of the insolent; rather, teaching of the L-rd is his delight, and he studies that teaching day and night.”

These are the opening lines of the Book of Psalms, which express the importance of both avoiding sin and faithfully following G-d’s law (in this instance, torah is translated as “teaching”). As always throughout the Hebrew Bible, G-d’s torah is not portrayed as burdensome or restrictive, but rather as a precious gift that enables humanity to experience a blessedness that it would otherwise not be capable of receiving.

“The earth is the L-rd’s and all that it holds, the world and its inhabitants. For He founded it upon the ocean, set it on the nether-streams. Who may ascend the mountain of the L-rd? Who may stand in His holy place?—He who has clean hands and a pure heart.”

Psalm 24 is one of many psalms that hold key places in the traditional Jewish liturgy. Ancient rabbinical practice assigns the recitation of Psalm 24 to the first day of each week, likely because the opening lines echo the events of G-d creating the world. The psalm then quickly turns to temple worship and the necessity of ritual purity, which was a dominant concern in the daily lives of the Israelites.

“The L-rd is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. […] He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor has He requited us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us.”

This extract from Psalm 103 expresses G-d’s character in contrast with that of sinful humanity, making reference to the theme of chesed, or steadfast love. One of the main poetic features of the psalms, parallelism, can be seen in the repeated idea of the closing lines of the passage.

“Praise the L-rd; for He is good, His steadfast love is eternal. Praise the G-d of gods, His steadfast love is eternal. Praise the L-rd of lords, His steadfast love is eternal.”

Psalm 136 is another important part of Jewish liturgy, used each year in the celebration of Passover. These lines are the opening of the psalm, and the subsequent passages narrate the creation of the world and the events of the exodus from Egypt yet always retain the repeated refrain in every couplet: “His steadfast love is eternal.” This passage thus shows the centrality of the virtue of chesed, steadfast love, to the character of G-d.

“Let fidelity and steadfastness not leave you; bind them about your throat, write them on the tablet of your mind, and you will find favor and approbation in the eyes of G-d and man. Trust in the L-rd with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths smooth.”

This quote from Proverbs, a book that is concerned with the acquisition of wisdom, conveys one of the key insights of that work: namely, that wisdom is first and foremost derived from following G-d’s ways and walking in wholehearted relationship with him. The injunction to bind virtues to one’s body and write them on one’s heart calls to mind the Jewish practices of keeping G-d’s teachings close at hand, as with the practice of tefillin. Here, we also see the poetic feature of parallelism, as the final sentence serves to recapitulate and extend the ideas in the preceding sentence.

“But this do I call to mind, therefore I have hope: The kindness of the L-rd has not ended, His mercies are not spent. They are renewed every morning—ample is Your grace! ‘The L-rd is my portion,’ I say with full heart; therefore I will hope in Him.”

This expression of the theme of The Chesed (Steadfast Love) of G-d comes from the Book of Lamentations, set amid the prophet Jeremiah’s desolate grief for the catastrophic suffering of his people. Even in the context of Jerusalem’s destruction and the exile of the Jewish people, Jeremiah can still profess his faith in the unchanging nature of G-d’s covenant-love.

“The sum of the matter, when all is said and done: Revere G-d and observe His commandments! For this applies to all mankind.”

This is Kohelet’s conclusion to the Book of Ecclesiastes (or that of a later editor), in which his reflections on the futility of existence are brought back and grounded in a statement that accords well with the rest of the Hebrew Bible and the theme of faithfulness to the law. This conclusion is sometimes suspected of being a later addition to the text of Ecclesiastes, but its presence reflects the value that Jewish tradition has derived from the book’s inclusion in the canon.

“They sang songs extolling and praising the L-rd, ‘For He is good, His steadfast love for Israel is eternal.’ All the people raised a great shout extolling the L-rd because the foundation of the House of the L-rd had been laid. Many of the priests and Levites and the chiefs of the clans, the old men who had seen the first house, wept loudly at the sight of the founding of this house. Many others shouted joyously at the top of their voices. The people could not distinguish the shouts of joy from the people's weeping.”

This scene describes the rededication of the temple after the first exiles return from Babylon. Here, G-d’s attribute of steadfast love (chesed) is invoked, and the impassioned response from the crowd establishes a new note of resolution and zeal in Israel, with the returned exiles now committed to loving the L-rd and keeping the commandments.