Latest Essays

A polyphonic approach to reading the Torah

A fresh look at the legislation in Parashat Kedoshim: Are we reading the legal details wrong? 

In reference to the parturient, the Torah speaks of a 33 or 66 day period of דמי טהרה “blood of her purity” as distinguished from a 7 or 14 day period “like menstruation.” What is the difference between these two periods according to Leviticus and how did later groups such as rabbinic Jews, Karaites, Samaritans, and Beta Israel understand it?

Despite its lengthy coverage of tzaraat, biblical “leprosy,” the Torah omits discussion of its cause, its infectiousness, and its treatment. Comparison to the Mesopotamian rituals pertaining to a strikingly similar disease, Saḫaršubbû, shows that these omissions were far from accidental.

Reading the Book of Zephaniah and remembering a day of desolation and devastation in association with a utopian day to come.

“Great as the sea is your breaking,” Lamentations 2:13. Before we try to understand pain or tragedy, we must first perceive its magnitude.

When and why washing became immersion: between traditional-rabbinic and scientific-critical approaches to the origin of immersion and the mikveh.

Finding gender equality in the Song of Songs without compromising God and meaning.

God uses a qādîm “forward” wind to bring the locusts and blow back the sea – but what direction is qādîm? Did Israel and its neighbors answer this question the same way? Can ancient maps clarify this question?

The structures, the thrones, and the artwork.

Moses and Aaron compete with the Egyptian ḥarṭummīm, “magicians,” who have the power to perform wonders. What do we know about such magicians from Egyptian sources?

The all pervading cosmic force. 

YHWH tells Moses to go see Pharaoh in the morning by the Nile (Exodus 7:15). Why was he there? Did Pharaoh take a daily stroll by the Nile? Did he use the Nile as a privy, or worship it? Perhaps a literary approach may be more fruitful.

The plague of blood developed as a mythological amplification of an older account in which Moses strikes the Nile to kill the fish and make the water stink.

Expanding upon R. David Zvi Hoffmann’s insight that Parashat Tzav (Leviticus 6-7) was originally connected directly with the laws of the ordination/miluim sacrifice in Exodus 29, with a second sacrificial unit (Leviticus 1-5) spliced in the middle.

A new look at the “Passover Papyrus” from Elephantine and the nature of the Hebrew calendar in the Achaemenid Empire.

Is the Bible’s portrayal of the magicians (Ḥarṭummīm) in accord with Egyptian literature and ritual practice? How did the Israelite writers obtain this knowledge?

In the Priestly texts, observing the divine commandments became an end in itself while the unique meaning or purpose of the particular mitzvah took on less significance. Concomitantly, Priestly authors asserted the need for personal atonement through a chatat (sin offering) for even unintentionally violating God’s commandments.

The Torah never defines specifically what, melakha, labor, on Shabbat entails, but the Mishnah already has an exact list of 39 categories of labor prohibited on Shabbat. A comparison of the structure of the Yerushalmi and Bavli sugyot highlight the different ways the Amoraim conceptualized melakha in contrast to the Mishnah.

What makes a material suitable for constructing a sacred space, and why, given all of the details and repetitions concerning the Tabernacle, are none of its manufacturing techniques narrated?

The Torah’s detailed description of the Tabernacle situated in the midst of the people gives readers equal access to God’s sacred dwelling. It serves as a corrective to the Temple narrative, with its isolated royal shrine and its focus on the Davidic covenant.

Ezekiel 36 uses Priestly “purification” imagery similar to that of the red heifer ritual to describe God’s future reconciliation with Israel, inspiring the rabbis to choose this passage as the haftara for Parashat Parah.

Many scholars, traditional and academic, believe it was worship of another god, the first commandment in the Decalogue, but what Aaron actually claims about the calf points to a different collection of laws.