The answer, or lack thereof, teaches us something important about the meaning and limits of divine revelation.
Prof.
Kenneth Seeskin
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The Torah is clear that God refuses to allow the exodus generation to enter the land as a punishment for their sinful reaction to the spies’ report. Maimonides, however, argues that the punishment was a ruse; God never intended to allow that generation to enter the land.
Prof.
Haim (Howard) Kreisel
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Who needs the Tabernacle? What is the purpose of sacrifices? Maimonides and Nahmanides have radically different answers to these questions, reflecting a core debate about the nature of Judaism and the purpose of its rituals.
Prof.
Menachem Kellner
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Why does God need an opulent dwelling, with precious metals and jewels, and priests with lush colored outfits? According to Maimonides, God doesn’t; it is we who need it.
Prof.
Kenneth Seeskin
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A midrash on the phrase venikdash bikhevodi, “and it shall be sanctified by my glory” (Exod 29:43) suggests that God is unusually strict when He punishes those who are close to Him. Rashbam strenuously objected to this popular midrash.
Prof. Rabbi
Marty Lockshin
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When YHWH sees the evil ways of humanity, he initially decides to wipe them out, but then determines to save Noah’s family. After the flood and Noah’s sacrifice, YHWH promises that He will never again destroy the earth and all life, even though humanity will continue in its evil ways. Thus, the story chronicles not the moral and emotional advancement of humanity but of YHWH.
Prof.
Ronald Hendel
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Some contemporary scholars have argued that Maimonides only meant to claim for the masses that God revealed to Moses the Torah as we have it today, that he himself could not have accepted the Divine authorship of Torah since it is incompatible with his philosophical principles. Yet, a correct understanding of Maimonides yields no such incompatibility, and, indeed, there is to no reason not to take him at his word.
Prof.
Charles H. Manekin
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,
The Aleinu prayer begins, עלינו לשבח לאדון הכל, “It is for us to praise the Master of all,” which creates theological tension: If God is presented here as the Master of all, why is it only Jews who are to praise God?
Prof. Rabbi
Reuven Kimelman
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In the 14th century, R. Nissim of Marseilles suggested that God told Moses only the general command for the Tabernacle and the laws in the Torah, and Moses himself wrote the details and attributed them to God as a way of glorifying God. A close look at many passages in Deuteronomy suggests that this was an early conception of Moses’ role in commanding the mitzvot.
Dr. Rabbi
David Frankel
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,
The Priestly Torah discusses the Tabernacle at extraordinary length, emphasizing its portability. Nothing in P ever says this structure was meant to be temporary. P’s Tabernacle was not foreshadowing the Temple, but was a polemic against Haggai and Zechariah’s agitation to build the Second Temple.
Dr. Hacham
Isaac S. D. Sassoon
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,
A biblical metaphor for God’s relationship with Israel first found in the prophet Hosea
Prof.
Carl S. Ehrlich
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Prof.
Tamar Ross
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Even those who categorically deny that God has form, is composed of matter, is visible, or is subject to the constraints of time and place, cannot seem to relinquish the notion that God speaks precisely as described in the Bible.
Prof.
Baruch J. Schwartz
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,
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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,
Four Aramaic targumim (ancient translations) have God, and not just cherubim, taking up residence east of the garden. This is based on a slightly different vocalization of the Hebrew text, which is likely a more original reading than our current biblical text (MT).[1]
Dr.
Raanan Eichler
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,
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 Jews.
Prof. Rabbi
Marty Lockshin
,
,
Do we really want God to remember all that we did?
Prof.
Marc Zvi Brettler
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,
An Explication of Deuteronomy 29:28
Rabbi
David Levin-Kruss
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Israel had a vassal treaty with Assyria which commanded them to love King Ashurbanipal, a "love" that brought with it legal requirements and penalty clause. Deuteronomy's command that Israel "love God" is best understood in this context, but what about God's love for Israel?
Dr.
Deena Grant
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,
The free-will conundrum of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart—a supplementary approach.
Dr. Rabbi
David Frankel
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,
God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites two different names, Ehyeh and YHWH.
Dr. Rabbi
Zev Farber
,
,
The Difference between God’s “Name (שם)” and “Presence (כבוד)”
Dr.
Michael Carasik
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,
Three distinct themes in Parashat Vayetzei are intertwined: Jacob’s encounter with God at Bethel, the birth of Jacob’s sons, and Jacob’s departure from Haran.
Prof.
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
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Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are often lumped together, as the two great curses, but their careful comparison reveals some fundamental and surprising differences.
Prof.
Marc Zvi Brettler
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,
YHWH commissions Isaiah to distract the people of Judah so that they continue to sin and then YHWH can punish them harshly. In contrast to other biblical figures such as Abraham and Moses, Isaiah is silent at this injustice.
Prof.
Marvin A. Sweeney
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,
Situating Sommer’s theology of participatory revelation and halachic fluidity among other Jewish thinkers and writings: Heschel, Maharal, Rosenzweig, and the Zohar.
Prof. Rabbi
Alexander Even-Chen
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,