Latest Essays

Did Israel Cross or Circumvent Edom? Deuteronomy versus Numbers.

The practice of studying older texts and composing new ones based on them goes all the way back to the Bible itself. The haftarot from the second part of the Book of Isaiah that we read for the next seven shabbatot are an outstanding example of this practice.

The vows of maiden daughters and wives are subject to veto by the woman’s father or husband. What does this say about the status of women in ancient Israel?

What does the root רצח actually mean: to kill or to murder? A look at Rashbam’s attempted (and failed?) solution highlights the ethical ramifications of Bible translation.

The Torah’s two contradictory methods for how to divide the land among the tribes – a redactional and historical approach.

Elijah the prophet is immortal, and Pinchas appears in a story long after the wilderness period. Both figures are described as zealots, leading to their identification as the same person by Pseudo-Philo (ca. 1st cent. C.E.) and later midrash. In a heated exchange preserved in a 13th-century fragment from the Cairo Genizah, two cantors and a congregant debate the rationality of this identification.

The Song of the Well, as recorded in Numbers 21:16-18, is only a brief excerpt. While many commentators assume that the song was naturally short, R. Yehudah HeChasid presents a radical suggestion that the song was actually cut from the Torah and placed in the book of Psalms by none other than King David.

The itinerary notes in Numbers 21 is a hodgepodge of styles and directions. Nevertheless, once we isolate each style, we find three separate itinerary lists, each from one of the standard Pentateuchal sources.

The biblical text is unclear as to why Datan and Abiram are rebelling. A careful look at their words shows that they are complaining about the land they are already living in.

How the conflation of Kiryat-arba and Hebron created a new mythic character, Arba, father of the giants.

The conflation of two cities over time

Did Caleb receive the Negev or Hebron? Is he a Judahite, a Calebite or a Kenizzite? The redacted account of Caleb in the Bible reflects the developing realities of southern Judah in the First and Second Temple periods.

Moses refers to the story of the spies in Deuteronomy 1. The details that overlap with Numbers fit only with the (incomplete) J version of the account. How are the two versions connected and what new details can we learn from comparing them?

The Midianite Origin of YHWH and Aniconism

The biblical portrait of Miriam can leave the modern reader with a lingering bitterness, but a closer reading highlights her prophetic role, and her willingness to challenge the social norms and pursue an alternative, redemptive course.

Why was the priestly benediction placed together with the laws of nazir and the laws of sotah? 

Berenice is infamous for being the traitorous lover of Titus and for rejecting the Great Rebellion against Rome, along with her brother Agrippa II. But she was also a pious woman who took a nazirite vow, was attached to her God and her people, and even risked her life to save her fellow Jews from Roman soldiers.

Hittite texts show us that in the ancient Near East, women, including the queen, served as priestesses. The biblical authors, in their fervor for YHWH, monotheism, and centralization of worship through one Temple and one priesthood, strongly objected.

The book of Ruth presents a different model of justice from that afforded by statute, custom, and precedent, one that seeks restorative as opposed to retributive justice.^[1]  

The mistaken exchange of the letter gimel for a vav corrupted the meaning of a key verse in Ruth.

The book of Ruth tells the story of David’s great grandmother Ruth, a Moabite woman who attaches herself to a Judahite family. Could this have been designed as a positive spin for a persistent, problematic tradition about David’s foreignness—a tradition so controversial that it was excised from the rest of the Bible?

A look at Naomi’s theology, as expressed in her poem, and how it carries her through her grief and back into productive engagement.

Jerusalem in the 14th century B.C.E. was a Canaanite city; by the 10th/9th century B.C.E. it was Israelite. The Bible records several different accounts of how it was conquered. What are we to make of these different traditions?