Study the Torah with Academic Scholarship

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Israel, Land

Rahab, the Broad, Symbolizes Israel’s Conquest of Canaan

The only named character in the story of the spies whom Joshua sends to Jericho holds the key to the story’s message.

Prof.

Leonard Greenspoon

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Jacob’s Dream: Why Do God’s Angels Ascend and Descend?

Jacob’s vision of angels of God going up and down is an allegory, a mise en abyme for the patriarchs’ journey to and from the land, and should be understood as a counterpart to YHWH’s reassurance to Jacob that he will return (Genesis 28:15).

Prof.

Yitzhak (Itzik) Peleg

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The Nations of Abraham: Explaining Israel’s Position in the Persian Empire

God promises Abram that his descendants will be a great nation in Genesis 12, while in Genesis 17, Abraham and Sarah are to become the forebears of a multitude of nations. A postcolonial analysis highlights how each image reflects a different way that Judeans grappled with their place and future in a world ruled by the vast and powerful Persian Empire.

Prof.

Mark G. Brett

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The Table of Nations: The Geography of the World in Genesis 10

A window into the extent of ancient Israel’s knowledge of the geography of the world.

Prof.

John Day

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Abraham Negotiates to Buy the Cave of the Machpelah in the Promised Land

Is the Machpelah a cave or a field? Why does Ephron say no to the sale at first? What does Abraham mean by “burying my dead from before my face”? Why does Abraham need to purchase a burial plot?

Prof.

Diana Edelman

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The Torah Begins with Creation to Defend Israel’s Right to the Land?

The theme of a divine creator’s right to assign territory to his people is pervasive in the Bible and ancient Near Eastern literature. Perhaps the rabbinic midrash which suggests that the Torah begins with creation to defend Israel against the accusation they stole the land of Canaan were onto something.

Prof.

Jason Radine

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Viewing the Promised Land, Moses Looks Even at the Transjordan

Several biblical passages assume that the promised land is limited to Canaan, i.e., the Cisjordan. But this view was not universally shared. Scribes who saw the Transjordan as part and parcel of it adjusted multiple passages in Deuteronomy, including the third and final take of Moses’s death, to make this episode fit their idea about the extent of the land.

Dr.

Angela Roskop Erisman

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Die Schrift: A Non-Territorial Translation of “The Land”

Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig's translation of the Bible strictly adheres to the text's wording and structure. The eminent thinkers sought to let German readers experience the resonance of the Bible's Hebrew and to capture its primordial meaning. Their rendition of Haazinu presents a provocative interpretation of the bond between God, Israel and its land as both universal and singular.

Dr.

Orr Scharf

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The Settlement of Reuben and Gad: A Rhetorical Case for Transjordan as Part of the Promised Land

Moses misunderstands the request of the Gadites and Reubenites to settle in the Transjordan as a result of unwillingness to participate in the conquest of Canaan with the rest of the Israelites. Once he realizes that they do mean to fight, he accepts their request. The author of Numbers 32 creates a rhetorically rich argument that the Transjordan is part of the Promised Land—but not everyone was buying what this author was selling.

Dr.

Angela Roskop Erisman

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The Geopolitical Context Behind the Boundaries in Numbers 34

Do the boundaries of the Land of Canaan in the Torah reflect a 13th century Egyptian province or a 7th century conquest by Pharaoh Necho?

Prof.

Yigal Levin

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Defining the Borders of the Land of Canaan – Numbers 34

A tour of the borders and the problems.

Prof.

Yigal Levin

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Survival and Revival: Megillat Esther and Ezra-Nehemiah

Jews in the Persian Period dealt with the reality of the destruction of Judah in two different ways. The Book of Esther emphasized the diaspora while Ezra-Nehemiah emphasized the rebuilding. For most of Jewish history the Ezra-Nehemiah model was all but non-existent, but this changed with the emergence of Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel.

Prof.

Sara Japhet

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Apportioning the Land: By Lot and By Population?!

The Torah’s two contradictory methods for how to divide the land among the tribes – a redactional and historical approach.

Prof.

Itamar Kislev

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Hasidic-Muslim Relations in Ottoman Palestine

In the wake of the Hasidic aliyah in the 18th and 19th centuries, Hasidic masters reflected on the positive experience the local Jews had with their Muslim neighbors, as well as the importance of loving the land’s inhabitants as part of loving the land itself. 

Prof.

Yitzhak Y. Melamed

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Jewish Attitudes Towards the Land of Israel during the Time of the Second Temple

Dr.

Malka Z. Simkovich

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The Good Land of Israel

What are the favorable qualities of the land of Israel, and what is God’s relationship to it?

Prof. Rabbi

David Frankel

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God, Israelites and Non-Israelites: Embracing Ambivalence

A postmodern look at Deuteronomy’s view on God’s role in politics, the challenge of monotheism in biblical times, and the relative positions of Israel and her neighbors in God’s eyes.

Prof.

Adele Reinhartz

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The Inner Workings of a Genizah Midrash on the Symbolic Value of Orlah

A set of homilies from the Genizah connects two biblical readings (sidrot) in Leviticus by emphasizing the importance of the mitzvah of orlah as a key to inheriting and remaining on the land.

Dr.

Shana Strauch-Schick

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Tova Sacher

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The Three Biblical Maps of Israel: Small, Medium, and Large

The land God promises to Abraham, the land Moses is commanded to conquer, and the land upon which the Israelites actually dwelt.

Prof.

Yigal Levin

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Who Was Living in the Land When Abraham Arrived?

Prof.

Yigal Levin

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