Showing posts with label Urim and Thummim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Urim and Thummim. Show all posts

Thursday, 6 February 2014

Urim and Tumim - Tetzaveh - Mythic Torah


Judaism has had a very ambivalent relationship to fortune-telling, astrology and predicting the future. On the one hand, we read in Deuteronomy 18 that those who consult the dead are an abomination, that witchcraft is absolutely illegal, and yet at the same time we know that there are kinds of divination that were practiced within God's own cult.

In particular, we read in this week's parasha of Tetzaveh about the mysterious Umim and Tumim stones, to be placed in the High Priest's breastplate: