In pre-exilic texts, לְהַבְדִּיל lehavdil means “to select, appoint, designate.” In the Priestly text, the term is used to refer to physical separation, while in the Holiness Text, it takes on an abstract meaning, to distinguish between objects and people in a cultic sense. The book of Ezra uses a new form of the term, לְהִבָּדֵל lehibbadel, to urge separating from non-Jews, prompting Trito-Isaiah to argue against separating (lehavdil) any faithful person from YHWH and His Temple.
Dr.
Attila Marossy
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How does the Torah envision that keeping kosher makes a person holy?
Dr. Rabbi
David M. Freidenreich
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Emphasizing the Holiness of Ethics over the Ritual
Prof.
Edward L. Greenstein
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The story of the half-Israelite half-Egyptian man’s cursing God highlights the larger concerns of Parashat Emor regarding the rights of gerim(strangers) and the need to maintain the holiness of the camp.
Dr.
Adriane Leveen
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Leviticus 21 and Ezekiel 44 regulate whom priests may marry. What rationale lies behind these laws?
Dr.
Eve Levavi Feinstein
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Impurity is transferred through physical contact. Theologically speaking, could the same be true for holiness?
Prof. Rabbi
Marty Lockshin
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Is the focal point of the book the Camp or the Tabernacle?
Prof.
Jonathan Grossman
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“And the Lord Blessed the Seventh Day and Consecrated It” (Genesis 2:3). Can time be blessed?
Prof. Rabbi
David Frankel
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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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Three different sources in the Torah express the Israelites’ separation from their neighbors as a core ideal.
Dr.
David Glatt-Gilad
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