God's Gender Beit Midrash Romemu 4/5/16 Translations by Everett Fox from the Five Books of Moses

3 May God Shaddai bless you, may he make you bear fruit and make you many, so that you become a host of peoples. 4 And may he give you the blessing of Avraham, to you and to your seed with you, for you to inherit the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Avraham.

25 By your father's God- may he help you, and Shaddai, may he give-you-blessing: Blessings of the heavens, from above, blessings of Ocean crouching below, blessings of breasts and womb! 26 May the blessings of your father transcend the blessings of mountains eternal, the bounds of hills without age. May they fall upon the head of Yosef, on the crown of the consecrated-one among his brothers.

22 Moshe had Israel move on from the Sea of Reeds, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur. They traveled through the wilderness for three days, and found no water. 23 They came to Mara, but they could not drink water from Mara, because it was mar/bitter. Therefore they called its name Mara. 24 The people grumbled against Moshe, saying: What are we to drink? 25 He cried out to YHVH, and YHVH directed him (to some) wood which he threw into the water, and the water became sweet.- There he imposed law and judgment for them, and there he tested them. 26 He said: If you will hearken, yes, hearken to the voice of YHVH your God, and what is right in his eyes will do, giving-ear to his commandments and keeping all his laws: all the sicknesses which I have imposed upon Egypt, I will not impose upon you; for I am YHVH, your healer. 27 They came to Elim; there were twelve springs of water and seventy palms, and they camped there by the water.

1 They moved on from Elim, and they came, the entire community of the Children of Israel, to the Wilderness of Syn, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day after the second Newmoon after their going-out from the land of Egypt. 2 And they grumbled, the entire community of the Children of Israel, against Moshe and against Aharon in the wilderness. 3 The Children of Israel said to them: Would that we had died by the hand of YHVH in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, when we ate bread till (we were) satisfied! For you have brought us into this wilderness to bring death to this whole assembly by starvation! 4 YHVH said to Moshe: Here, I will make rain down upon you bread from the heavens, the people shall go out and glean, each day's amount in its day, in order that I may test them, whether they will walk according to my Instruction or not. 5 But it shall be on the sixth day: when they prepare what they have brought in, it shall be a double-portion compared to what they glean day after day. 6 Moshe and Aharon said to all the Children of Israel: At sunset you will know that it is YHVH who brought you out of the land of Egypt; 7 at daybreak you will see the Glory of YHVH: when he hearkens to your grumblings against YHVH- what are we, that you grumble against us? 8 Moshe said: Since YHVH gives you flesh to eat at sunset, and at daybreak, bread to satisfy (yourselves); since YHVH hearkens to your grumblings which you grumble against him- what are we: not against us are your grumblings, but against YHVH! 9 Moshe said to Aharon: Say to the entire community of the Children of Israel: Come-near, in the presence of YHVH, for he has hearkened to your grumblings! 10 Now it was, when Aharon spoke to the entire community of the Children of Israel, they faced the wilderness, and here: the Glory of YHVH could be seen in the cloud. 11 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying: 12 I have hearkened to the grumblings of the Children of Israel- speak to them, and say: Between the setting-times you shall eat flesh, and at daybreak you shall be satisfied with bread, and you shall know that I am YHVH your God. 13 Now it was at sunset a horde-of-quail came up and covered the camp. And at daybreak there was a layer of dew around the camp; 14 and when the layer of dew went up, here, upon the surface of the wilderness, something fine, scaly, fine as hoar-frost upon the land. 15 When the Children of Israel saw it they said each-man to his brother: Mahn hu/what is it? For they did not know what it was. Moshe said to them: It is the bread that YHVH has given you for eating. 16 This is the word that YHVH has commanded: Glean from it, each-man according to what he can eat, an omer per capita, according to the number of your persons, each-man, for those in his tent, you are to take. 17 The Children of Israel did thus, they gleaned, the-one-more and the-one-less, 18 but when they measured by the omer, no surplus had the-one-more, and the-one-less had no shortage; each-man had gleaned according to what he could eat. 19 Moshe said to them: No man shall leave any of it until morning. Exodus 20 But they did not hearken to Moshe, and (several) men left some of it until morning; it became wormy with maggots and reeked. And Moshe became furious with them. 21 They gleaned it in the morning, (every) morning, each-man in accordance with what he could eat, but when the sun heated up, it melted. 22 Now it was on the sixth day that they gleaned a double-portion of bread, two omers for (each) one. All the exalted-leaders of the community came and told it to Moshe. 23 He said to them: It is what YHVH spoke about: tomorrow is a Sabbath/Ceasing, a Sabbath of Holiness for YHVH. Whatever you wish to bake-bake, and whatever you wish to boil-boil; and all the surplus, put aside for yourselves in safekeeping until morning. 24 They put it aside until morning, as Moshe had commanded, and it did not reek, neither were there any maggots in it. 25 Moshe said: Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath for YHVH, today you will not find it in the field. 26 For six days you are to glean, but on the seventh day is Sabbath, there will not be (any) on it. 27 But it was on the seventh day that some of the people went out to glean, and they did not find. 28 YHVH said to Moshe: Until when will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions? 29 (You) see that YHVH has given you the Sabbath, therefore on the sixth day, he gives you bread for two days. Stay, each-man, in his spot; no man shall go out from his place on the seventh day! 30 So the people ceased on the seventh day. 31 Now the House of Israel called its name: Mahn. -It is like coriander seed, whitish, and its taste is like (that of) a wafer with honey.- 32 Moshe said: This is the word that YHVH has commanded: An omer of it for safekeeping throughout your generations, in order that they may see the bread that I had you eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. 33 Moshe said to Aharon: Take a vat and put an omer of mahn in it, and put it aside in the presence of YHVH, in safekeeping throughout your generations. 34 As YHVH had commanded Moshe, Aharon put it aside before the Testimony, in safekeeping. 35 And the Children of Israel ate the mahn for the forty years, until they came to settled land, the mahn they ate, until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan. 36 Now an omer-it is a tenth of an efa.

1 Now the people were like those-who-grieve (over) ill-fortune, in the ears of YHVH. When YHVH heard, his anger flared up; there blazed up against them a fire of YHVH and ate up the edge of the camp. 2 The people cried out to Moshe and Moshe interceded to YHVH, and the fire abated. 3 So they called the name of that place Tav'era/Blaze, for (there) had blazed against them fire of YHVH. 4 Now the gathered-riffraff that were among them had a craving, hunger-craving, and moreover they again wept, the Children of Israel, and said: Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We recall the fish that we used to eat in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the watermelons, the green-leeks, the onions, and the garlic! 6 But now, our throats are dry; there is nothing at all except for the mahn (in front of) our eyes! 7 -Now the mahn is like seed of coriander, its aspect like the aspect of bdellium. 8 The people would roam around and collect it, grind it in millstones or crush it in a crusher, boil it in a pot, and make it into cakes, so that its taste was like the taste of (something) rich (made with) oil. 9 And when the dew came down on the camp at night, the mahn would come down on top of it.- 10 Moshe heard the people weeping by their clans, each-man at the entrance to his tent. Now YHVH'S anger flared up exceedingly, and in the eyes of Moshe it was ill. 11 Moshe said to YHVH: For-what have you dealt-ill with your servant, for-what-reason have I not found favor in your eyes, (that you) have placed the burden of this entire people on me? 12 Did I myself conceive this entire people, or did I myself give-birth to it, that you should say to me, Carry it in your bosom like a nursing-parent carries a suckling-child, to the soil about which you swore to their fathers? 13 Where should I (get) meat to give to this entire people, when they weep on me, saying: Give us meat so that we may eat! 14 I am not able, myself alone, to carry this entire people, for it is too heavy for me! 15 If thus you deal with me, pray kill me, yes, kill me, if I have found favor in your eyes, so that I do not have to see my ill-fortune!

26 Now two men remained in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, the name of the second, Meidad, and the spirit rested upon them -they were among those-recorded, but they had not gone out to the Tent- and they acted-like-prophets in the camp. 27 A (certain) lad ran and told Moshe, he said: Eldad and Meidad are acting-like-prophets in the camp! 28 Then Yehoshua son of Nun, Moshe's attendant from his youth, spoke up, he said: My lord Moshe, contain them! 29 But Moshe said to him: Are you jealous for me? O who would give that all the people of YHVH were prophets, that YHVH would put the rush-of-his spirit upon them! 30 Moshe took himself back to the camp, he and the elders of Israel;