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Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House,www.gefenpublishing.com. The Orthodox Union (OU) publishes daily samples of the Targum books on www.ouradio.org.

On Changes in Jewish Liturgy

Options and Limitations

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        Overzealous and Unproductive

                                                       

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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is author of a series of books on Maimonides. He and Rabbi Stanley M. Wagner are authors of a series of books on the Targum Onkelos. A number of his essays have appeared on our website: jewishideas.org

 

Blaise Pascal made a rather famous statement regarding
religious beliefs called “Pascal’s bet” or “Pascal’s wager” or “Pascal’s
gambit.” Those who accept his notion try to believe in God – even though they
are convinced that He does not exist.

Who was Blaise Pascal?

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    <br /> <p>     <br />   </p> <p>       <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri"><i>Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of a series of volumes on Maimonides, the latest three being </i>Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind, <i>and </i>Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets, <i>and</i> Maimonides: Reason Above All, <i>and the writer of a series of books on </i>Targum Onkelos, <i>which he co-authors with Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner.</i></span> </p>

     

      Exodus 10:1 has a curious statement: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials, so that I may perform miraculous signs of mine among them.’”

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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is author of thirteen books, including three volumes on philosophy. He is coauthor, with Rabbi Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, of books on Targum Onkelos.

People familiar with the Sabbath laws know that the Torah does not list the activities prohibited on the Sabbath. However, rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 49a, state that the Torah hints at the activities that are banned.
These hints are based on two rabbinical teachings that are applied by the rabbis at times: (1) When facts or incidents are placed near one another in the Bible, one can derive a lesson from the juxtaposition. (2) A halakhah can be learned from such things as counting the number of times an item appears in the Torah.
Thus the rabbis stated:

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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin and Rabbi Dr. Stanley M. Wagner are the authors of the series Onkelos on the Torah. Dr. Drazin also authors a series of books on Maimonides, the latest are &quot;Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind&quot; and &quot;Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets.&quot;

The rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud stated that Targum Onkelos is the authoritative translation of the Bible. Yet, as we will see, it is grossly misunderstood. It is the document that the talmudic rabbis expected people to look to in order to determine the meaning of scriptural words and phrases. Although these rabbis authored Midrashim and their views on the Bible were recorded in the Talmuds, they did not instruct Jews to read these two works every week with the weekly Bible portion. Rather, they told Jewry to read the Bible in its original Hebrew twice each week and once in the Aramaic translation of the original Hebrew, Targum Onkelos.

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