{"id":1640,"date":"2023-09-07T00:21:57","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T05:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2023-09-07T00:26:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T05:26:15","slug":"the-narrator-of-torah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/the-narrator-of-torah\/","title":{"rendered":"The Narrator of Torah&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1641 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/01light.jpg?resize=200%2C152&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"152\" \/>Since we will be reading the Torah again for another year soon, it is worthwhile to remind ourselves about how the Torah itself begins&#8230; In this connection we note that it speaks from an omniscient, &#8220;third person&#8221; perspective. When we read, &#8220;In the beginning, God (\u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05d4\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd) created the heavens and the earth,&#8221; we must ask who exactly is speaking? Who is the <em>narrator<\/em> of the Torah? The next verse states that the Spirit of God (\u05e8\u05d5\u05bc\u05d7\u05b7 \u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05d4\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd) was hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2), followed by the first \u201cdirect quote\u201d of God Himself: i.e., \u05d9\u05b0\u05d4\u05b4\u05d9 \u05d0\u05d5\u05b9\u05e8: &#8220;Let there be light&#8221; (Gen. 1:3). The creative activity of <em>Elohim<\/em> (God) and the presence of <em>Ruach Elohim<\/em> (the Spirit of God) are therefore narrated by an omniscient Voice or &#8220;Word of God&#8221; (i.e., <em>Davar Elohim:<\/em> \u05d3\u05bc\u05b0\u05d1\u05b7\u05e8 \u05d4\u05b8\u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05d4\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd).\u00a0 Obviously the Spirit of God is God Himself, just as the Word of God is likewise God Himself, and therefore the first verses of the Torah reveal the glorious nature of the Godhead (i.e., <em>hashilush HaKadosh:<\/em> \u05d4\u05e9\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05e9 \u05d4\u05e7\u05d3\u05d5\u05e9). God is One in the sense of <em>echdut<\/em>, \u201cunity,\u201d \u201coneness,\u201d and and so on, though not \u201cone\u201d in the monistic sense of a solipsistic mind (\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2). God is beyond all theological predications: there can be no sense of \u201cperson\u201d apart from relationship, and therefore God\u2019s Personhood entirely transcends all our finite conceptions &#8211; and yet God forever is One&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6383\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gen1-1-analysis-1.gif?resize=577%2C634&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"577\" height=\"634\" \/><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1640-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gen1-1-jjp.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gen1-1-jjp.mp3\">https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gen1-1-jjp.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>\u00ad<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since we will be reading the Torah again for another year soon, it is worthwhile to remind ourselves about how the Torah itself begins&#8230; In this connection we note that it speaks from an omniscient, &#8220;third person&#8221; perspective. When we read, &#8220;In the beginning, God (\u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05d4\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd) created the heavens and the earth,&#8221; we must ask [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-dvar","category-hebrew-reading-practice","category-torah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6385,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/6385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}