Latest Essays

Both Chanukah and Purim are celebrations of Jewish victory over their enemies. Nevertheless, Maimonides turns these into holidays of peace.

“God Seeks the Pursued”: A Midrashic text from the genizah compares Esau’s Pursuit of Jacob with Saul’s pursuit of David using a panoply of biblical verses and mishnaic halakhot.

Naming practices in the biblical and ancient Near Eastern cultures differed significantly from those of medieval Jews in Fatimid Egypt (7^th-12^th cent. CE) as evidenced by the genizah findings. Examining these names presents us with important historical and anthropological data.

By withholding his son Shelah from Tamar, Judah sins against her. Powerless to oppose him legally, Tamar must resort to subterfuge to achieve what is justly hers, the possibility of children from her deceased’s husband’s family.

Three distinct themes in Parashat Vayetzei are intertwined: Jacob’s encounter with God at Bethel, the birth of Jacob’s sons, and Jacob’s departure from Haran. 

The older Northern version of the Jacob story was heavily supplemented by later Southern authors, yielding more sons of Jacob, new explanations of their names, and a much more fecund Leah.

Midrash Chad Shenati, discovered in the Cairo Genizah, criticizes Abraham for not praying for Sarah and praises Isaac for praying for Rebekah.

The term לשוח is a hapax legomenon, a term that appears only once in the Bible. What does it mean?

A look at the the practice and prohibition of child sacrifice in the Bible and the ambivalence underlying the stories of Jephthah’s daughter, Agamemnon’s daughter, and the binding of Isaac.

The literary similarities between the expulsion of Ishmael account and that of the Akedah implies that a trial is taking place.

Esau’s plan to kill Jacob and his “dotted” kiss upon their reunion has been cited by rabbinic authorities, such as Rav Moshe Feinstein, as evidence that antisemitism is inherent. This idea is not found in the Torah or the Talmud.

Using historical geography and geology to uncover the setting of a pre-Israelite story.

Why Melchizedek, a minor biblical character, became so significant in Jewish and Christian interpretation.

Genealogical lists are often overlooked, and yet they represent a distinct biblical literary genre with ideological content. What messages are these lists meant to convey?

The story of divine beings procreating with human women (Genesis 6) is expanded upon in the book of Enoch to tell how these angels also bring sin to humanity, causing the ancient flood as well, and this sin is the source of disease in the present day.

What does it mean for the rainbow to be a sign of God’s covenant with life on earth, and how does this compare with other concepts of the rainbow in the ancient world?‍

Commentators have struggled with this question for centuries, but ancient cosmology offers a compelling solution.

Eight possible meanings of Cain’s response גָּדוֹל עֲוֹנִי מִנְּשֹׂא (Genesis 4:13) and what this tells us about his character as presented in the Torah

“And the Lord Blessed the Seventh Day and Consecrated It” (Genesis 2:3). Can time be blessed?

The bridge that enables the annual traversal from the ending of the Torah back to its beginning is the anticipation of new questions.

How subversive literature becomes normalized.

We are God’s partners in fixing the ethical flaws in the Torah. Halachic loopholes are not dishonest or deceptive; they are part of the design.