Latest Essays

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.

Building materials or trail mix? How Karaite Jews read Leviticus 23:40, which describes the mitzvah of taking (ולקחתם) the four species, in light of Nehemiah 8:15.

The golden calf is a Jewish version of the “fall” of Adam and Eve in Christian tradition.

The Torah’s adaptation of a polytheistic ancient West-Semitic custom of sacrificing to seventy gods.

The final phrase of Haazinu (Deut 32:1-43) in the MT, וכפר אדמתו עמו, “and he will atone for his land, his people,” is difficult to parse. The textual variants from Qumran, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint offer a clearer, if more dismal, understanding of the phrase.

Qohelet says that simḥah (joy) is the best thing in life, but also that it is profitless and absurd. This essay will explore this fundamental contradiction.

The Israelite-Samaritan interpretation of “you should afflict your souls” (ועניתם את נפשתיכם) and our experience of Yom Kippur.

How a provoking and problematic Aramaic prayer continues to mesmerize so many Jews every Yom Kippur.

The Book of Jonah depicts the animals being dressed in sackcloth and mourning along with the people. Are the Ninevites fools or repentants?

Evaluating Deuteronomy’s angst about Israel’s future in light of the story of Ahiqar and modern educational research into student resistance.

A biblical metaphor for God’s relationship with Israel.

The liturgical readings of Rosh Hashanah tell of Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah being “remembered” by God, making barrenness and conception the locus of divine providence.

Yose ben Yose’s 4^th century CE piyyut for the shofarot service, and its creative use of the Song of Songs.

Before the destruction of Judah in 586 BCE, Jeremiah wrote a series of oracles consoling his northern brethren. After the destruction of Judah, a supplementary layer was added to console the southern Judahites as well.

Will the gentiles really say that because Israel “forsook the covenant that YHWH, God of their fathers, made with them when He freed them from the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 29:24) that YHWH is punishing them?

Contemporary Jewish polemics use the term “Torah mi-Sinai” to mean a doctrinal belief in the Mosaic authorship of the Torah. The Sages, however, use the term differently, to claim that all of Torah, written and oral, including their very own words, come from Sinai. But is this claim meant to be taken literally?  

Deuteronomy 28 imagines the possibility of Israel disappearing, and eventually assimilating into the nations where it is exiled. Deuteronomy 30:1-10, however, predicts Israel’s future repentance and consequent restoration.

Can all social change be antedated back to Sinai?

Two places in the Bible describe God striking people with hemorrhoids (ophalim): the curses in Deuteronomy 28 and the story of the Philistines’ capture of the ark in 1 Samuel 5-6. In the latter, the Philistines make golden statues of their afflicted buttocks to propitiate the Israelite deity. Traditional readings replace these crass references with the less offensive term techorim (abscesses).

The textual remnants of a Second Temple religious polemic between Judeans and Samaritans about where God’s chosen mountain lies.

Israel had a vassal treaty with Assyria which commanded them to love King Ashurbanipal, a “love" that brought with it legal requirements and penalty clause. Deuteronomy's command that Israel “love God” is best understood in this context, but what about God's love for Israel?

Mount Gerizim appears in the Pentateuch as the mountain of blessing and plays a prominent role in Samaritan tradition, but the Jewish tradition sidelines this mountain and the Samaritans themselves in a polemic that began more than two and half thousand years ago.

A look at the Torah and Mishnah’s treatment of the mitzvah of bringing bikkurim (first fruits) to the Temple and its associated requirement to recite a historical confession through five prisms: phenomenological, historical, anthropological, feminist and liturgical.

Thoughts on Torah Min HaShamayim