Friday, June 1, 2007

Harry Potter themes in Parshat Beha'alotcha

This week's Torah portion, Beha'alotcha, discusses the manna ("mon" in Hebrew) that the Jews ate for 40 years in the desert. The Midrash and Torah commentaries say that the manna could taste like anything that the eater wanted it to.

I've elaborated on this in two previous blog messages:

In Why did Harry's Bogart Effect Him Like a Dementor I use the manna as an analogy for the bogart, a magical animal that can take on any shape.

In More About Magic on Shabbat I discuss the question of whether it would be prohibited on Shabbat to eat manna and imagine its tasting cooked or baked, if the process of cooking or baking is in general forbidden on Shabbat.

Have a great Shabbat everyone!

--Dov

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