It is in your mouth, and in your heart - and in the oven of Akhnai
Parashat Nitzavim
In this week’s Torah portion, there is a brief but powerful passage that always attracts attention. This is the text of Deuteronomy 30:1...
Happiness is not experienced before entry into the promised land
That surprised me - and I spend a lot of my time studying those texts.
I recently looked at every use of the Hebrew word meaning “love” in the first five bo...
Where is the Love in the Five Books of Moses?
The Hebrew word for love, from the root aleph-heh-vet, or ahav, is not found in the Book of Numbers. There is no love in the wilderness!
Where love is found in the other four ...
Numbers 25 – Israel at Shittim and the Pinchas Episode
In Numbers 25 the Israelites are in Shittim, which is the last stop on their journey through the desert. They are led there into both idolatry and illicit sexual activit...
The Fiery Snakes of Numbers 21:5-9
Practical magic or retrospective justification?
The Torah portion called Chukkat ( Numbers 19:1–22:1) is full of oddities but perhaps none is more unusual than the account of the...
The Bible Discourages Territorial Expansion
Judaism is not a territorially expansionist religion. It is different in that respect from either Islam or Christianity. Judaism is not and has not been a religion of conquest, exp...
A Thought on Parashat Be'ha'alotcha
Ignoring the Biblical Editor
Finalizing the Biblical Text
We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls, from texts found in other desert locations, from the Cairo Geniza, and from impro...
A Survey of Civil versus Religious Authority in Jewish Law
Dina de-Malkhuta Dina
from the Mishna to the Shulchan Aruch
[Note: This was prepared to inform a discussion held on Leil Shavuot 5784]
Background
The issue o...
The Enigmatic Man of Time
The first section of Acharei Mot deals with the physical rituals of the Yom Kippur observance. The seriousness of the subject is clearly signaled by a reminder of what happened to the eldest sons of...