Latest Essays

When Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp, Joshua zealously presses for their incarceration. Moses, however, exclaims that all the people should ideally be prophets.

And the Re-imagining of the Harvest Festival in the Wake of the Babylonian Exile

A 364 Day Solar Year

The book of Jubilees is the earliest source to connect Shavuot to the Sinai covenant.

Illustrating four aspects of Shavuot from critical and traditional perspectives.

A Personal Reflection

A tale of chesed and chutzpah

A New Look at the Meaning of the Sotah and Nazir Rituals

Two Problems In Parashat Bemidbar 

A new insight based on archaeology

The Torah prohibits a mourning ritual called tonsuring, i.e., the pulling out or cutting of hair to express sorrow. Rabbinic interpretation understood these verses as a prohibition for men to shave their beards or temples with a razor. Ibn Ezra, however, uncharacteristically rejects the rabbinic interpretation of these verses, and Shadal, who accepts ibn Ezra's reading, goes as far as to say that he himself shaves with a razor.

A rejoinder to Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber’s “The Purification of a Niddah: The Torah Requirement.”