Vol. 36:2

Works passage by passage through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah, and Malachi to test the widespread assumption that the prophets rejected the sacrificial cult, and concludes instead that their scorn fell on offerings brought without morality or to false gods, while each prophet anticipated restored Temple worship as the very sign of reconciliation with God.

Surveys the unresolved dispute over whether the biblical day opens at sunset or at sunrise, following Genesis 1:5 through the rival readings of Rashbam and Ibn Ezra, the solar calendar of the Qumran covenanters, the rabbinic derivation of the Sabbath eve from the laws of Yom Kippur and Matzot, and scholarly attempts to date Israel's shift from solar to lunar reckoning.

Reads the episode of the two men left out of the seventy elders in Numbers 11 as a study in contrasting routes to prophecy, distinguishing figures who attain inspiration through solitary preparation from those trained and ordained by a mentor, and concludes that Scripture reserves effective national leadership for the second type, exemplified by Joshua.

Reconstructs the final decade of the Judean kingdom by setting five witnesses side by side, namely 2 Chronicles, 2 Kings, the Lachish ostraca, passages of Jeremiah and Ezekiel 17, and argues that unlike the clashing testimonies of Rashomon these accounts complement one another to portray a weak and vacillating king caught between Babylonian overlordship and a pro-Egyptian faction.

Traces how the Talmud and Midrash resolve the apparent conflicts among three creation verses in Genesis by reading them allegorically, so that the two countenances of the first human, the disputed rib, and the phrase behind and before in Psalm 139 together express one doctrine of human duality: creature and image of God, passive and active, mortal yet accountable for the world.

Identifies eleven major episodes of internal Israelite bloodshed recorded in Scripture, from the Golden Calf to the war of Pekah and Ahaz, and argues that the widespread assumption that no such civil conflict appears in the Bible reflects psychological defenses against anxiety and collective guilt rather than any real absence of evidence in the text.

Argues that Korah's revolt differed in kind from Israel's other wilderness complaints because it assailed the prophetic authority of Moses rather than physical hardship, and that its governing error was treating holiness as a benefaction automatically conferred on every Israelite instead of a level each individual must reach through study, discipline and self-mastery.

Argues that the ambiguous word shalem in Genesis 33:18 names a place rather than describing Jacob's condition, since the adverbial sense of arriving unharmed is otherwise unattested in Scripture and normally requires an accompanying preposition, and suggests that rabbinic reluctance to link the term to Shechem reflected polemic against Samaritan claims for Mount Gerizim.

Three short reader contributions: Gerardo Sachs on the number eight as the biblical marker of a new beginning alongside seven's symbolism of completion, Elihu Schatz arguing that the sons of Elokim in Genesis 6 are men created directly by God rather than angels, and Israel Stein pairing the political mutiny of the spies with a spiritual mutiny over the Sabbath.

Reviews the opening volume of Yonatan Kolatch's series on traditional Jewish Bible commentary from the first through tenth centuries, praising its lengthy primer on parshanut and its chapters on Hazal, the Targumim, the Zohar, the Geonim, the Spanish linguists, and the Ba'alei Masorah, while noting that thoroughness occasionally costs the book momentum.

Replies to Dr. Kahn's objections to her earlier article on self-effacement, defending the claims that a person may be understood as part of God and may attain devekut, and marshaling Soloveitchik, the Tanya, Nefesh Hahayyim, the Zohar, Ibn Ezra, Ramban, and Or Hahayyim to show that both ideas are native to Jewish thought.