Vol. 41:4
An examination of Sarah's harsh treatment of Hagar in Genesis 16 through the lens of both classical Jewish commentary and ancient Near Eastern legal codes. Radak defends Abraham but faults Sarah, while Ramban implicates both; Rabbi Elhanan Samet argues, on the basis of Mesopotamian marriage contracts and the Code of Hammurabi, that Sarah and Abraham acted entirely within the legal conventions of their day, against Nehama Leibowitz's insistence that the Torah judges them by a higher standard. The article proposes a synthesis: Sarah acted lawfully within her social-legal context, yet the narrative's sympathy for Hagar's suffering signals the Torah's discomfort with that very context, a discomfort later realized in laws protecting runaway slaves.
Leviticus gives no explicit reason for the sudden death of Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu after they offered 'alien fire' before the Lord. Surveying modern commentators such as Milgrom, Levine, and Schwartz alongside the Midrash of Leviticus Rabbah, this article argues that the underlying cause was impaired judgment from alcohol consumption — a reading supported by the prohibition against priestly intoxication that immediately follows their death in Leviticus 10:8-11. Whatever specific ritual infraction the brothers committed, the article contends that drink was the reason they were incapable of the clear-headedness their office demanded.
Why did Balaam undertake a mission he had every reason to believe would fail, and why did he persist after his first oracle blessed rather than cursed the Israelites? Drawing on close readings of Rashi and other commentators, this article argues that avarice and grandiosity — not, as rabbinic tradition holds, hatred of Israel — drove Balaam to accept Balak's invitation, and that after the humiliation of his failed first oracle he continued out of a need to retaliate against the Moabites' affronts to his wounded ego.
Ruth and Elisha seem to have little in common, yet both reject their former lives to attach themselves to a reluctant mentor-figure — Naomi and Elijah, respectively — who would each prefer to travel their critical final journey alone. The article traces this shared pattern of rejection, oath-bound loyalty, and provision for others, then argues that the two stories diverge sharply in direction and tone: Ruth's is a story of hope, natural fertility, and dynastic renewal ending in the birth of David's ancestor, while Elisha's is a story of miracle-dependent crisis unfolding against the coming exile of the Northern Kingdom.
The ambiguous Hebrew phrase be-tahtit ha-har in Exodus 19:17 ('at the foot of the mountain') opens the door to a striking rabbinic derash: that God inverted Mount Sinai over the Israelites like a barrel and threatened to bury them alive unless they accepted the Torah. This article traces how Rashi, Tosafot, and later thinkers wrestled with the theological problem this midrash creates — coercion versus the people's professed willing acceptance (na'aseh ve-nishma) — and surveys several ways of reading the story, from Rava's account of a later reaffirmation in the days of Esther to Rav Kook's notion of a Torah relationship that deepens over time.
Why does Genesis bother naming every link in the genealogical chain from Noah to Abraham, rather than simply noting, as the Mishnah does, that ten generations separated them? Taking as a model the Bible's own explanation of Peleg's name as a forward-looking allusion to the dispersion of nations, this article proposes symbolic meanings for each name in the line — Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, and Terah — reading them as a chronicle of humanity's post-Flood emotional and religious evolution: from mourning, through the rise of idolatry and the deification of kings, sun, and moon, to Abraham's rediscovery of monotheism.
Why does the number seven carry such outsized significance across Israelite and wider Mediterranean tradition — from the seven days of Creation and Sukkot's water libation to folk customs for inducing fertility? Building on Philo's observation that seven's properties are 'beyond all words,' this article proposes that the number's prestige derives from the distinctive two-season climate of ancient Israel and the Mediterranean, where a six-month dry season gives way to a six-month rainy season beginning in the seventh month — making seven, at its root, a symbol of rainfall, fertility, and the blessing that follows from both.
The word shefi in Numbers 23:3 (va-yelekh shefi, describing Balaam's departure) has resisted confident translation for centuries, with classical and modern sources proposing 'alone,' 'a bare height,' 'lame,' and 'slowly' among other readings. This article surveys the range of ancient and modern translations and rabbinic interpretations, then argues on the basis of the Akkadian cognate šēpu ('foot') that shefi simply means 'on foot' — a reading that also explains why the Talmud understood Balaam as lame, and why the text bothers to note his mode of travel just after his talking donkey drops out of the story.
A report on the fiftieth International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth (Hidon Hatanakh) held in Jerusalem, notable for its first tie in over twenty years between Elior Babian of Bet Shemesh and Yishai Eisenberg of New Jersey. The contest drew 54 overseas contestants from 26 countries, alongside separate qualifying rounds for Israeli and Diaspora youth, and featured appearances by Minister of Education Rabbi Shai Piron, Knesset chairman Yuli Edelstein, and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
A review of The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth (commentary by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and the late Tikva Frymer-Kensky; JPS, 2011), winner of the 2011 National Jewish Book Award. The review highlights the volume's combination of scholarly and traditional Jewish material, its extensive Introduction covering topics from levirate marriage to feminist interpretation, and the distinctive contribution of two women scholars to a book named for one of only two biblical women with an eponymous megillah.
Responding to Arthur J. Wolak's article on Ezra's role in establishing matrilineal descent as the criterion of Jewish identity, this letter argues that signs of a matrilineal policy predate Ezra, tracing biblical hints of a mother's house alongside the father's house and surveying rabbinic, Greek, and Roman-period parallels for why the criterion of Jewish status ultimately settled on the mother's line.