Torah Portion

Va’etchanan

ואתחנן

Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Isaiah 40:1-26

Commentaries Were Written as Soon as Ancient Texts Were Composed

Commentaries Were Written as Soon as Ancient Texts Were Composed

The creative exegetical methods of reading texts both literally and non-literally are not limited to the interpretation of the Bible. Commentaries on ancient cuneiform literature from Mesopotamia have been found dating all the way back to the end of the 8th century B.C.E.

Dr.
Uri Gabbay
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Adapting the Decalogue to Your Religion

Adapting the Decalogue to Your Religion

Jewish Greek philosophy, the New Testament, Christian theology, Samaritan law, Rabbinic Judaism, the Church Fathers—all shaped and interpreted the Decalogue to meet the needs of their community.

Prof.
J. Cornelis de Vos
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The Decalogue: Ten Commandments or Ten Statements?

The Decalogue: Ten Commandments or Ten Statements?

The Hebrew term for the Decalogue is עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים aseret hadevarim. The word דבר davar is one of the most common nouns in biblical Hebrew, and can mean “word,” “thing,” “statement,” and even “commandment.” What does it mean in this context?

Prof.
Marc Zvi Brettler
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Prof.
Jed Wyrick
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The Origins of the Decalogue

The Origins of the Decalogue

The Decalogue was not originally part of the Sinai theophany but was added later, both in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Its origins lie in wisdom literature.

Dr.
Cynthia Edenburg
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Jews Intermarried Not Only in Judea but Also in Babylonia

Jews Intermarried Not Only in Judea but Also in Babylonia

The Bible describes the shock that Ezra and Nehemiah experience upon learning that the Judean locals had married non-Judeans. And yet, from Babylonian marriage documents uncovered in cities near Babylon, we learn that intermarriage was occurring back in Babylonia as well.

Dr.
Laurie Pearce
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The Shema: Instructions for a Romance with YHWH

The Shema: Instructions for a Romance with YHWH

The threefold demand to love YHWH with all of one’s heart לְבָבְךָ, soul נַפְשְׁךָ, and “very-ness” מְאֹדֶךָ (Deuteronomy 6:5) is spelled out with specific instructions in the verses that follow.

Prof. Rabbi
Reuven Kimelman
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Women’s Connection to Shabbat

Women’s Connection to Shabbat

Israelite women are conspicuously absent from the Decalogue’s Shabbat law. Three stories in the Prophets featuring female characters—Rahab the prostitute, the great woman of Shunem, and Queen Athaliah—each tie to Shabbat in some unconventional way.

Prof.
Hagith Sivan
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The Prologue to Deutero-Isaiah

The Prologue to Deutero-Isaiah

“Comfort, oh comfort My people, says your God,” נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ עַמִּי יֹאמַר אֱלֹהֵיכֶם. Thus begins the prologue to Deutero-Isaiah (40:1–11), a passage containing four speech fragments haunted by the past but offering a message of comfort and hope.

Prof.
​Francis Landy
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The Quran’s Lesson from the Shema: Direct Your Heart to God

The Quran’s Lesson from the Shema: Direct Your Heart to God

The Quran makes multiple intertextual connections with the Shema and its rabbinic commentary in its qiblah (“direction”) passages, thus highlighting a point of agreement between Jews and Muslims: Prayer is not about the physical direction you face but about loving God with all your heart.

Dr.
Abdulla Galadari
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Two Versions of the Decalogue: Ibn Ezra’s Non-Explanation

Two Versions of the Decalogue: Ibn Ezra’s Non-Explanation

Ibn Ezra gives a surprising non-explanation for why Deuteronomy’s version of the Decalogue differs from that of Exodus: Is it really such a problem if Moses changed the words a little as long as he got the point right?

Prof. Rabbi
Marty Lockshin
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The Many Recensions of the Ten Commandments

The Many Recensions of the Ten Commandments

Beyond the two versions of the Decalogue in Exodus and Deuteronomy, and the usual differences between MT, SP, and LXX, in Second Temple times, liturgical texts in Qumran (4QDeutn) and Egypt (Nash Papyrus), Greek references in the New Testament and Philo, and even tefillin parchments, reflect slightly different recensions of the text.

Prof.
Sidnie White Crawford
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What Are Clay Female Figurines Doing in Judah during the Biblical Period?

What Are Clay Female Figurines Doing in Judah during the Biblical Period?

Hundreds of Judean pillar figurines have been found throughout Judahite homes in the Iron Age II. What is the biblical and archaeological context of these finds?

Dr.
Aaron Greener
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Does Rashi’s Torah Commentary Respond to Christianity?

Does Rashi’s Torah Commentary Respond to Christianity?

Moses promises that if Israel forsakes the covenant, God will destroy them permanently (Deut 4:25-26). Drawing on a midrash, Rashi explains that God exiled Israel early to avoid having to wipe them out; thus, God never actualized this threat. Considering Rashi’s responses to Christian ideas in other biblical texts, Rashi's comment on Deut 4:25 may well be an apologetic effort to prove that God’s covenant with the Jews remains intact.

Dr.
Yedida Eisenstat
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Does the Decalogue Prohibit Stealing?

Does the Decalogue Prohibit Stealing?

Generally translated as “do not steal,” the Rabbis make a compelling case for understanding lo tignov in the Decalogue to be a prohibition against the more serious offense of kidnapping, or, in modern terms, human trafficking.

Prof. Rabbi
Jonathan Magonet
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Shema Yisrael: In What Way Is “YHWH One”?

Shema Yisrael: In What Way Is “YHWH One”?

The Shema has many interpretations, philosophical, eschatological, national, etc. A historical-critical way to understand the Shema is to read it (and Deuteronomy more broadly) against the backdrop of Assyrian domination, when Assyria touted their god Ashur as the supreme master of the world.

Rabbi
Daniel M. Zucker
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The Mitzvah to Love God: Shadal’s Polemic against the Philosophical Interpretation

The Mitzvah to Love God: Shadal’s Polemic against the Philosophical Interpretation

Philosophically inclined rabbis, such as Maimonides, attempted to understand the mitzvah to love God in Aristotelian terms, imagining God as a non-anthropomorphic abstract being. Shadal argues that this elitist approach twists both Torah and philosophy, and in its place, he offers a moralistic approach that can be achieved by all.

Prof. Rabbi
Marty Lockshin
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Chesed: A Reciprocal Covenant

Chesed: A Reciprocal Covenant

Today chesed is understood as an altruistic act of kindness. In the Bible, chesed and the parallel term noam refer to a covenantal arrangement between a powerful person or deity and their subject(s).

Prof.
Elinoar Bareket
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The Covenant in Moab: Deuteronomy Without Horeb

The Covenant in Moab: Deuteronomy Without Horeb

Deuteronomy has Moses receiving a revelation at Horeb, but only teaching the Israelites its contents decades later in the Land of Moab. This two-step revelatory process, which is presented as two covenants (Deuteronomy 28:69), masks an earlier form of Deuteronomy that had no record of a Horeb revelation.

Prof. Rabbi
David Frankel
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Judaism Without Sinai?

Judaism Without Sinai?

The Sinai theophany is virtually absent from the Bible outside of the Torah and the very late book of Nehemiah. This absence reflects an alternative tradition that sees Israel’s laws as deriving from multiple small revelations from prophets throughout history. 

Prof. Rabbi
David Frankel
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Do Not Covet: Is It a Feeling or an Action?

Do Not Covet: Is It a Feeling or an Action?

In English, to covet means to desire someone or something obsessively, wrongfully, and/or without due regard for the rights/feelings of others. It is a strong emotion, to be avoided. But does “covet” capture the meaning of the Hebrew verb חמד?

Prof.
Leonard Greenspoon
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Deutero-Isaiah Reworks Past Prophecies to Comfort Israel

Deutero-Isaiah Reworks Past Prophecies to Comfort Israel

The practice of studying older texts and composing new ones based on them goes all the way back to the Bible itself. The haftarot from the second part of the Book of Isaiah that we read for the next seven shabbatot are an outstanding example of this practice.

Prof.
Benjamin D. Sommer
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The Shema and the Commandment to Love God in Its Ancient Contexts

The Shema and the Commandment to Love God in Its Ancient Contexts

Reading Deuteronomy in light of ancient Near Eastern treaties, we learn that the commandment to love God entails both action and affection. We further learn about the nature of God’s love for Israel, described also in the prophets and in the rabbinic reading of Song of Songs.

Prof.
Jon D. Levenson
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Understanding Idolatry

Understanding Idolatry

Theologians of the ancient Near East made sense of idolatry through the ritual dedication of the statues that made them into gods.

Dr.
Uri Gabbay
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The Oldest Known Copy of the Decalogue?

The Oldest Known Copy of the Decalogue?

A careful examination of the three oldest copies of the Decalogue—4QDeutn, 4QPaleoExodusm, and the Nash Papyrus—surprisingly shows that none of them reflects the Masoretic Text.

Dr.
Esther Eshel
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Va’etchanan

ואתחנן

Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

אֶעְבְּרָה נָּא וְאֶרְאֶה אֶת הָאָרֶץ הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן...

דברים ג:כה

Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan...

Deut 3:25

Deuteronomy

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