Sexuality

Human perfection cannot be achieved only through intellectual and spiritual development, but requires companionship and physical intimacy.

In Genesis 21:9, Sarah sees Ishmael מְצַחֵק metzacheq and tells Abraham to banish the boy. The verb has long been interpreted innocently, as laughing or playing, yet this may not be what it means.

If an Israelite wishes to marry a woman taken captive in war, she becomes part of the Israelite polity and is protected from future re-enslavement. Uncomfortable with the Torah’s permitting this marriage, the rabbis declare it to be a compromise to man’s “evil impulse,” an idea reminiscent of Jesus’ claim that the Torah allows divorce as a compromise to humanity’s “hard heart.”

The Feast of Ingathering is “at the tzet (צֵאת) of the year” (Exod 23:16). This phrase is generally translated as “the end of the year,” but a closer look at the meaning of the Hebrew verb in biblical Hebrew suggests it may mean the beginning.

Why can’t a man remarry his wife once she has been married to someone else?

Finding gender equality in the Song of Songs without compromising God and meaning.

Leviticus 21 and Ezekiel 44 regulate whom priests may marry. What rationale lies behind these laws?

Who were these women and what were these mirrors used for? Reconstructing the narrative: the historical-critical method vs. midrash. 

And Moses’ decision to break the tablets

Reading Shir HaShirim in Its Original Sense

What does Deuteronomy 22:5 prohibit and why?

In reference to the parturient, the Torah speaks of a 33 or 66 day period of דמי טהרה “blood of her purity” as distinguished from a 7 or 14 day period “like menstruation.” What is the difference between these two periods according to Leviticus and how did later groups such as rabbinic Jews, Karaites, Samaritans, and Beta Israel understand it?

A surprising look at Shabbat in the Second Temple period.