Prof. Martha Himmelfarb is the William H. Danforth Professor of Religion emerita at Princeton University. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 1981. Her most recent book is Jewish Messiahs in a Christian Empire: A History of the Book of Zerubbabel (2017). Other books include A Kingdom of Priests: Ancestry and Merit in Ancient Judaism (2006) and The Apocalypse: A Brief History (2010).
Last Updated
April 24, 2023
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The Torah allows the removal of vessels from a house before the priest quarantines it for tzaraʿat, understanding impurity here not as the result of physical reality but of a human declaration. This idea is developed further by the rabbis, who apply it to other areas of Jewish law.
The Torah allows the removal of vessels from a house before the priest quarantines it for tzaraʿat, understanding impurity here not as the result of physical reality but of a human declaration. This idea is developed further by the rabbis, who apply it to other areas of Jewish law.
The biblical priestly text is unique in the ancient Near East, in that it utilizes scribal features such as colophons, cross references, and casuistic laws (when... then...), aimed at making the text accessible to the public. This preserved Israelite priestly writing past the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.
The biblical priestly text is unique in the ancient Near East, in that it utilizes scribal features such as colophons, cross references, and casuistic laws (when... then...), aimed at making the text accessible to the public. This preserved Israelite priestly writing past the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.
