Latest Essays

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.

The Tower of Babel is a marvelous tale about the ambition and hubris of primal humanity, with a biting political message and dark insights into the human condition.

Kohelet begins and ends with the phrase הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים “all is futile” (1:2, 12:8). Rashbam argues that these aren’t the author’s words but an editorial framing, which includes the famous ending that the sum of the matter is to fear God and keep His commandments (12:13). If we remove this framing, the book ends on a very different note.

Rabbi Eliezer says that the sukkah is meant to remind us of the real booths from the wilderness period. Rabbi Akiba (surprisingly) suggests that it reminds us of the clouds of glory. What is at the heart of this debate?

The Torah and Bavli vs. the Prophets and Yerushalmi

Israelite-Samaritan Sukkot