Latest Essays

מזמור שיר חנכת הבית לדוד, “A song of the dedication of the Temple of David”

Biblical concepts about the Second Temple, its purification, and dedication strongly inform the development of Chanukah’s earliest customs and symbols.

Why the rabbis ended Parashat Miketz with a cliffhanger (in both the Babylonian and the Eretz-Yisraeli traditions), and what the Ancient Near Eastern legal context of “evidence law” can clarify for us about the background of the story.

The historical symbolism of the twelve tribes and the geographical significance of the tribe of Benjamin.

The Significance of the Rabbinic Choice of Haftarah for Shabbat Chanukah

Torah Mi-Sinai and other dogmas compelled me to reconsider my place within the Orthodox world.

The Joseph story provides a compelling case for the use of source-critical methods for unraveling intertwined stories in the biblical text.

The story of Joseph as a young man (Genesis 37-40) is full of contradictions and doublets, and is interrupted by the story of Tamar and Judah (Genesis 38). Beyond that, hovering in the background is the question: how can the spoiled youth, his father’s favorite, become the prudent leader and savior of his family?

An intertextual reading of the Dinah story highlights how it polemicizes against marriage with non-Israelites, even those willing to take on Israelite practices. Some rabbinic counter-readings of the text, however, express a more positive notion of incorporating converts to Judaism into the community.

Who gets to name the child? Priestly and non-Priestly texts give two different answers.

How ancient scribes dealt with a confusing story — a textual critical analysis

Does the Supplementary Hypothesis explain the existence of a fourth son that found his way back into Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Quran?

An introduction to the Diatessaron, and its significance to biblical studies, particularly the Documentary Hypothesis.

When geography makes or breaks a storyline

Genesis Rabbah surprisingly portrays Lot’s daughters and their choices in a decidedly positive light, while exacerbating Lot’s culpability.

The biblical track record suggests that blessings often come with competition, resentment and strife. What kind of blessings are, indeed, blessings?

Set in between two stories that describe Sarah as old and withered is the episode of Abimelech taking Sarah. Why does he desire her?

A Source Sheet listing R’ Avraham ibn Ezra’s Six Non-Mosaic Biblical Passages plus his One Counter-Example, with the Complete Text of ibn Ezra’s Comments and Bonfils’ Glosses on these comments in English and Hebrew

An analysis of the Rabbinic interpretation that the covenant of the pieces predates the Lech Lecha command.