The Hebrew Bible expresses the Israelite belief that the Israelites were the people of God uniquely chosen from among all peoples of the earth, and that this status as elected people guaranteed them certain privileges not granted to other peoples.
From the last decades of the nineteenth century through the late 1930s, the West Bohemian spa towns of Carlsbad, Franzensbad, and Marienbad were fashionable destinations for visitors wishing to "e;take a cure"e;to drink the waters, bathe in the mud, be treated by the latest X-ray, light, or gas therapies, or simply enjoy the respite afforded by elegant parks and comfortable lodgings.
Moving from cosmology to creativity to criminology, the Torah explores the breadth of human existence: ethics and ritual, narratives of Patriarchs and Matriarchs, history and a philosophy of history--all of these drive the first five books of Hebrew Scripture.
