Study the Torah with Academic Scholarship

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Individual & Communal

Land or Torah: What Binds Israel as a Nation?

This fundamental question lies at the heart of two stories: God suspending Mount Sinai over the Israelites to compel them to accept the Torah, and Joshua, with the Jordan River suspended over the Israelites, compelling them to accept mutual responsibility for each other's private sins.

Dr.

Tzvi Novick

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Recasting the Temple Purification Ritual as the Yom Kippur Service

Leviticus 16 – ויקרא טז

Prof. Rabbi

David Frankel

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Torah: Deuteronomy’s Version of Wisdom for Israel

Deuteronomy reflects influence from ancient Wisdom traditions, such as those in the book of Proverbs and in other ancient Near Eastern literature. Yet Deuteronomy presents Torah as Israel’s own Wisdom teaching. This serves both to elevate Torah and to insist that it be in dialogue with the broader, non-Israelite world.

Dr.

Ethan Schwartz

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Teshuva and “Returning to the LORD” - Are They One and the Same?

Dr.

David Lambert

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Breaking the Heifer’s Neck: A Bloodless Ritual for an Unsolved Murder

If a corpse is found in a field, and the killer is unknown, Deuteronomy 21 requires the elders of the closest city to break a heifer’s neck by a stream and declare that they did not spill “this blood.” How does this ritual of eglah arufah, “broken-necked heifer,” atone for Israel’s bloodguilt?

Dr.

Yitzhaq Feder

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Yom Kippur and the Nature of Fasting

Jewish tradition places a strong emphasis on the importance of repentance on Yom Kippur. It finds its way into Yom Kippur through a post biblical association between fasting and repentance. But what does fasting signify in the Bible and what did it mean originally in the context of Leviticus 16?

Dr.

David Lambert

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Rosh Hashanah: Celebrating the Creation of the Individual or the Community?

A New Appreciation of “Adam the First” 

Prof. Rabbi

David Frankel

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Stoning the Idolater: The Significance of Proper Procedure

Prof.

Shalom E. Holtz

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Authority Needs Language

By erasing the boundaries between Written and Oral Torah, and removing any clear content from God’s revelation of law, Sommer undermines the concept of authoritative halakha that he wishes to refine.

Prof.

Sam Fleischacker

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Cursed Is One Who Does Not Uphold the Words of This Torah?

The anomalous and paradoxical nature of the twelfth curse – Deuteronomy 27:26.

Rabbi

Uzi Weingarten

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