Vol. 39:2
Bible study is undergoing a worldwide renaissance, yet it faces malign attacks from Islamic fundamentalists who deny the historical connection between the Jewish people and their sacred sites. The editor calls on readers to play their part by studying, teaching, discussing, and finding inspiration in the Book of Books.
Numbers presents a comprehensive set of case histories as illustrative examples from which Jewish law derives three categories of forbidden speech: slander, malignity, and gossip. The paper examines incidents in Numbers—especially the story of Miriam—as the archetypes that underlie the classical laws of oral communication.
Why is the Torah reading for the first day of Rosh Ha-Shanah Genesis 21? The article examines standard explanations—that the holiday celebrates creation, or that Sarah conceived Isaac on that day—and finds them unpersuasive, proposing a new explanation rooted in the liturgical and legal development of the holiday.
Solomon's legendary wisdom, a divine gift granted in response to his humble request, was both his glory and his undoing. The Talmud records that Solomon came to rely on his own intuition rather than proper legal process, and that his many foreign marriages—motivated by diplomatic wisdom—led to the spiritual downfall the Torah had explicitly warned against.
The biblical word ramah, describing the fate of pharaoh's troops at the Sea of Reeds, is best translated as 'uplifted' or 'upraised' rather than 'hurled' or 'flung.' Drawing on both biblical evidence and Egyptian inscriptions from the El Arish shrine, the article argues that the account describes a tsunami-like event in which the pharaoh was catapulted vertically before drowning.
In I Samuel 28, Saul sought the help of a medium to raise the dead prophet Samuel. This paper argues that the medium saw a 'godlike being,' that Samuel reacted with anger at having his grave desecrated, and that Saul's transgressions were disobedience and violating a sacred ban against the Amalekites, contrasting the biblical account with talmudic interpretations.
The blue thread (tekhelet) in the tzitzit fringes commanded in Numbers 15 carries deep mystical significance, linking earth to heaven and symbolizing the Throne of Glory. This paper traces the rabbinic elaboration of its meaning through Talmud and Midrash and explores the historical circumstances of its disappearance from Jewish practice.
Psalm 118, familiar from the Hallel liturgy, is here interpreted as an organic description of the ceremony surrounding the Thanksgiving Sacrifice (Korban Todah). The author assigns the psalm a superscription—'A Ceremony for the Bringing of the Korban Todah'—and uses it to explain the shift from singular to plural within the chapter and its unfolding liturgical setting at the Temple gates.
This essay explores the Chronicler's concerns with worship as illustrated through four kings of Israel: David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Against Wellhausen's dismissal of Chronicles, the article argues that the book offers a rich resource for understanding genuine worship of God and the hope it sustains for a people separated from the Temple.
A review of The Torah: A Women's Commentary (2008), edited by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss. This award-winning work is the first comprehensive Torah commentary written entirely by women, representing a broad spectrum of Jewish scholars and applying gender-accurate language to the entire text of the Torah.
A report on the first televised adult Bible contest (Hidon Ha-Tanakh) held in Jerusalem in 30 years, broadcast during Hanukkah 2010. The author describes the format, its similarities to the annual international youth Hidon, and expresses mixed feelings: satisfaction at the renewal of this tradition but disappointment at the absence of innovation.
A letter thanking Judy Taubes Sterman for her article 'Themes in the Deborah Narrative' in Vol. XXXIX:1, noting its compelling analysis of three mothers who take on assertive roles, and observing connections with the letter writer's own article on Genesis 27 in the same issue.