Tanach Thoughts

 I was originally planning for the post title to be "Zecher Leyetziat Mitzrayim or Zecher Leyetziat Mitzrayim?" but you can't emphasize words in post titles, so I nixed that. This post is a callback to one of my very first posts, almost a year ago, here . I was troubled then by the implications of claims made by various people that basically the whole Torah was based on the culture and religion of other ancient nations, Egypt in particular. Well, actually, I wasn't really troubled by the implications. B"H my faith is strong. I was more troubled about the fact that more and more people were coming to accept this notion as though it was the simple, clear truth. The main problem I see is that not only it makes out Hashem to be a copyist and unoriginal, but it also seems to remove from the Torah its eternal aspect: How could it be eternal if everything in it came to reflect some such civilization that the Israelites had happened to come into contact with and decided ...

Well, it has definitely been too long. I started the draft of this post a month ago but haven't gotten around to finishing it and posting it. My bad. My head hasn't been in the game. If you were checking back every now and then, waiting - I apologize. So, the moment you have all been waiting for: Why is Devorah a Levite? This is part two of the two-part series presenting my theory on the true tribal identity of the judges Barak and Devorah. Part one may be viewed here . I'll note that I've added another point on Barak about the etymology of his name. That was one of the points I'd thought of over a year ago, but forgot to put it in the post. It's there now. Though many of the proofs used for Barak cover also Devorah, she also has some unique points in her own right: Point A:  The midrash ( Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 42:7 ;  Tanna Devei Eliyahu Rabbah 9:1 ) says that Barak was also known as Lapidot, and that his real name was Michael. He was the husband of Devorah an...