"Count the heads...from twenty years old and up, everyone who goes out in the (tzava) army in Israel..." Tzava is the modern Hebrew word for army and how most understand it in this verse. However, one is fit for military service at an even younger age and indeed some modern armies accept recruits at sixteen. The Ramban

And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim "deror" release in the land to all its inhabitants... The etymology of the word "deror" is subject to debate. The King James Bible's translation, "liberty," is famous because the words "proclaim LIBERTY" are inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and many Jewish translations prefer some

While the Bible insists on an eye for an eye, Rabbinic interpretation has always rejected this literal reading. How is this justified? The verse reads: And should a man maim his fellow as he has done so shall it be done to him...an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth...such a blemish shall be given to

The golden rule of human conduct is in this week's portion: And you shall love your neighbour as yourself (Vayikra 19:18). Some Christians argued that the Hebrew word for 'neighbour' (rea) refers only to fellow Israelites, marking this morality as tribal, yet The Hertz Chumash discounted this possibility. The same word is used, he argued, in Shmot 11:2 when Moses advised