Pinchasפינחס

Sons, and then daughters, brothers, and paternal uncles all inherit, but the Bible is silent about spouses. The Talmud, in a midrashic reading of the laws of inheritance (Numbers 27:8–11) that the sages themselves admit is not what the verses say, adds that husbands are first to inherit from wives, but wives do not inherit from their husbands. Rashi and Ibn Ezra differ on whether a biblical verse can support both midrashic and peshat interpretations.

The discoveries from the caves of Qumran yielded hundreds of psalms and prayers. Some of these derived from the sectarian community known as the Yaḥad, who lived there. Others came from diverse Jewish communities, and were preserved and presumably used by the Yaḥad as part of their twice-daily “offering of the lips” as an alternative to the “defiled” sacrifices being offered in the Temple. These documents offer invaluable evidence concerning the origin of fixed communal prayer in Judaism.

In Plato’s Laws, the Athenian stranger proposes founding a future state by dividing land into equal plots among citizens, organized into twelve districts each dedicated to a specific god. The Bible also prescribes a lottery system for allocating land—both among tribes and family units—but never explains how such a lottery could function fairly given the unequal sizes of tribes and families. Why?

The Bible presents Hazael as a cruel and powerful enemy, who devastated Israelite and Philistine cities, forcing Jerusalem’s King Joash to empty the Temple coffers to save his city. Archaeology helps us to reconstruct his military campaigns and their impact on the Levant.

Blood has a significant role in many biblical stories and rituals, most prominently in the atonement sacrifices of Leviticus. With the destruction of the Temple and the loss of sacrifices, Judaism and Christianity took very different paths to achieving atonement.

The genealogy of the tribe of Manasseh appears in Numbers 26 and again in Joshua 17 with slight differences. It appears a third time, in 1 Chronicles 7, wholly reconceived, highlighting how certain biblical genealogies represent tribal kinship patterns that shift over time.

The Samaria ostraca and a close look at biblical verses help us locate Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milkah, and Tirzah, in the territory of Manasseh.

The Torah describes Phinehas as a zealot, who kills Zimri in an act of vigilante fervor, and is rewarded by God with eternal priesthood. Anticipating the rabbis’ discomfort with Phinehas’ vigilantism, Josephus transforms Phinehas into a military general and Zimri’s sin into a dangerous sedition requiring a military response.

A burnt offering (olah), described as “sweet smelling” food for YHWH, always includes grain and wine libation “side-dishes,” constituting a complete meal. A purification offering (chattat), however, is a cleansing ritual. Should it also have an accompanying libation? The Masoretic Text of Numbers 28-29 offers an inconsistent answer that differs from that of the Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch.

Pinchas is portrayed as a hero in the Torah and Second Temple sources for killing Zimri and his Midianite lover, Cozbi. Rabbinic sources struggle with the absence of any juridical process or deliberative body, which contravenes their own judicial norms, and therefore recast or minimize his act in subtle ways.

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

The Torah’s two contradictory methods for how to divide the land among the tribes – a redactional and historical approach.

Elijah the prophet is immortal, and Pinchas appears in a story long after the wilderness period. Both figures are described as zealots, leading to their identification as the same person by Pseudo-Philo (ca. 1st cent. C.E.) and later midrash. In a heated exchange preserved in a 13th-century fragment from the Cairo Genizah, two cantors and a congregant debate the rationality of this identification.

The laws of holiday sacrifices in Ezekiel 45–46 contradict the laws in Numbers 28–29. The problems are so significant that some Talmudic sages thought it would be best to withdraw (לגנוז) the book of Ezekiel. This piece lays out the discrepancies in detail, surveys some traditional and modern answers, and ends with my own thoughts about why Ezekiel’s system is so different.

Before Moses dies, he asks God for a leader who will “come and go” before the people. God’s response is unequivocal: appoint Joshua. Nevertheless, as the narrative continues, God places Joshua under Elazar the priest, a clear sign of later redaction. When was this change made and why?