Latest Essays

Jacob’s standoff with Esau, including dividing his camp in two so that if one should be attacked, “the camp which is left shall escape” (Genesis 32:9), is seen as a precursor and strategy for Jewish survival throughout the generations. This story and verse played a significant role in the attitude of Orthodox Jewry toward America.

Jacob’s vision of angels of God going up and down is an allegory, a mise en abyme for the patriarchs’ journey to and from the land, and should be understood as a counterpart to YHWH’s reassurance to Jacob that he will return (Genesis 28:15).

Why are Israelites blessed with agricultural abundance while the Edomites live in a semi-arid land and are forced to hunt? Isaac’s blessing is an etiological story to explain this reality from an Israelite perspective.

The patriarchs Isaac and Jacob are both described as blind from old age when they give blessings to the next generations. Eli the priest and Ahijah the prophet are also blind. How did the biblical authors use disability as a narrative device?

At the end of David’s life, he is old and cold, and his advisors find him a beautiful young virgin to keep him warm. They appoint her as sōkhenet, an administrator of the royal household, allowing her to play a key role as an official witness to the court cabal ensuring Solomon’s succession.

Rebecca’s confidence and assertiveness are an example of the difference between the dictates of common law, which rendered women entirely subject to the decisions of their fathers and/or husbands, and the multifaceted realities of women’s lived experiences in ancient Israel.

Interpretations of the binding of Isaac all suffer from a common fault: they fail to consider the ambiguities and unanswered questions of the story. Rather than a simple lesson or theological conclusion, the story leaves us with a deep and abiding perplexity, even anxiety.

Abraham famously receives three divine guests and hosts them lavishly (Genesis 18:1–15). Anthropological fieldwork on the etiquette of hospitality in Mediterranean-type societies allows us to better understand Abraham as host and his divine visitors as guests.

Is it Ahasuerus, Mordechai, or the horse?

When Pharaoh takes Sarai into his palace, rather than being a passive victim, as in the Bible, the midrash has Sarai taking her complaint directly to God and commanding an angel regarding her protection and the punishment of her captors.

Clue: Seven pairs of kosher animals are brought to the ark so that Noah can sacrifice to YHWH after the flood.

The creation account was divided in the post-exilic period into six days to provide an etiology for Shabbat. This necessitated creating light on day one to distinguish between day and night. In turn, it required assigning significance to the sun and moon on day four beyond their role as sources of light.

Already the editors of the Torah recognized the discrepancies between the two creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2–3 and made redactional alignments so the two stories would read better next to each other. Such awareness is also evident among the earliest interpreters of the Bible, including the book of Jubilees and the Septuagint.

The etrog has been identified as the Torah’s פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר, “fruit of trees of beauty” (Leviticus 23:40), since the Second Temple period. Here are five other interpretations of this verse.

Is there a difference between human and animal souls? Is there a hereafter at all, and if so, does righteousness or wickedness affect it? These questions, discussed by Greek philosophers, inspired the Judean discourse of the Hellenistic period. Ecclesiastes on one side, 1 Enoch and the Wisdom of Solomon on the other.

The etrog tree, according to midrash, fulfilled God’s command in creation, such that the tree tasted like its fruit. It was also the tree of Knowledge from which Eve ate. By taking the etrog on Sukkot along with the other species, we atone for this primordial sin.

In his idealistic youth, Shadal argued in favor of the earlier rabbis’ contention that Kohelet is heretical and should have been suppressed. With age, he came to appreciate it as a lesson about the search for happiness and meaning in life.

The history, structure, poetic style, and intertextual biblical and rabbinic sources that inspired the best-known liturgical piyyut recited on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

In a Yom Kippur afternoon (minhah) liturgical poem (piyyut) about Abraham, the artist of the 13^th century Leipzig Mahzor chooses a scene of Abraham standing up to Nimrod and God saving him from death by fire.

In the Second Temple period, a crimson thread was placed on the horn of the Yom Kippur scapegoat and tied to a stone in the desert before the goat was pushed off the cliff. After the verse “If your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18) was used as a prooftext for this non-biblical practice, the Talmud envisaged a magical ritual in which a second crimson thread would turn white on Yom Kippur to signal God’s acceptance of the people’s repentance.

Jonah is resentful when God is ready to forgive the wicked city of Nineveh, and his book ends with God trying to change Jonah’s perspective. Whether or not God was successful, on Yom Kippur we read the words of Micah (7:18–20) as if Jonah finally accepts God’s compassionate nature.

Israel’s deity becomes a universal God and the political power behind human affairs. This is just one of seven historical shifts in how the Bible conceives of “theocracy,” divine political power.

The new year and Akitu festivals in Babylonia were celebrated in the spring, during which the high priest of Marduk’s Esagil temple would read the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish. This narrative tells how the young god Marduk became king of the gods by saving them from Tiamat and her army of monsters.

The title ʾem, “mother,” is found in a synagogue inscription, and is used in the Talmud to refer to Abaye’s foster mother. ʾEm is likely also used as a title when it is applied to biblical Eve, Deborah, and the wise woman of Abel of Beth-maacah. It reflects their honored position, not their role as child-bearing women.

Revised in the post-exilic period in the voice of Moses, Deuteronomy describes Judah’s destruction and exile to a foreign land כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה “as it is still the case” (Deuteronomy 29:27), but reassures the people that, at the end of days, Israel will be reconciled with YHWH, who will circumcise their hearts to ensure their permanent loyalty.