Dr. David Bernat is Consultant in Outreach and Development with JALSA, The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action. He has a PhD in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies from Brandeis, is the author of Sign of the Covenant: Circumcision in the Priestly Tradition and co-editor of Religion and Violence: The Biblical Heritage. Bernat has held faculty positions at UMass Amherst and Wellesley College, and regularly leads adult education tours to Israel with an historical and archaeological focus.
Last Updated
April 20, 2021
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It is widely assumed that the Torah prohibits all tattoos. And yet, a look at the verse in context yields alternative understandings.
It is widely assumed that the Torah prohibits all tattoos. And yet, a look at the verse in context yields alternative understandings.
Second Temple period interpreters understood circumcision as an act of purification, but they debated whether it was physical or spiritual.
Second Temple period interpreters understood circumcision as an act of purification, but they debated whether it was physical or spiritual.
Pinchas is portrayed as a hero in the Torah and Second Temple sources for killing Zimri and his Midianite lover, Cozbi. Rabbinic sources struggle with the absence of any juridical process or deliberative body, which contravenes their own judicial norms, and therefore recast or minimize his act in subtle ways.
Pinchas is portrayed as a hero in the Torah and Second Temple sources for killing Zimri and his Midianite lover, Cozbi. Rabbinic sources struggle with the absence of any juridical process or deliberative body, which contravenes their own judicial norms, and therefore recast or minimize his act in subtle ways.
Prima facie, circumcision maims a body. Genesis Rabbah, however, argues that it actually perfects the body, and the book of Jubilees says it makes Jewish men like angels.
Prima facie, circumcision maims a body. Genesis Rabbah, however, argues that it actually perfects the body, and the book of Jubilees says it makes Jewish men like angels.
