Latest Essays

Dathan and Abiram’s civic rebellion against Moses and Aaron was independent of the Levites’ challenge to their religious demotion in relation to the Aaronides. The composite narrative underscores, more emphatically than either story could do alone, the principle that divinely-appointed leaders are to be accepted by the nation of Israel.

Reflections on teaching biblical criticism in the classroom; a talk given at the Edah conference (2005).

The Critical and Traditional Approaches

Four Answers to One Question

The works of medieval exegetes such as Maimonides, Rashbam and Ibn Ezra demonstrate that Judaism has a long-standing tradition of studying the Torah critically.

Inaugurating TheTorah.com

Rachel and Leah give Jacob their maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah, as wives to bear children on their behalf. The four sons born to the maidservants are named by Rachel and Leah to express their own feelings and experiences of having more of “their” own children. Yet the Bible consistently calls them the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah and counts them as Jacob’s sons, part of the twelve tribes of Israel. Should Bilhah and Zilpah then not be considered matriarchs?

It wasn’t until the late Second Temple period—shaped by Greek and Roman legal culture—that Torah law started to function as actual law.

With a miracle of an overflowing jar of oil, Elisha saves a widow’s sons from debt-slavery. He then grants the Shunammite woman a child and later resurrects that child from an untimely death. Both stories craft a portrait of a prophet exercising powers usually reserved for God. Is this prophetic hagiography or criticism of his encroachment on God’s domain?