Ancient Israel
From New Year to Arbor DayWednesday, February 8, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The holiday of Tu Bishvat ("the fifteenth of Shvat") falls this year on Wednesday, February 8. What are its origins, and when and why did it become incorporated into the calendar as the Jewish "Arbor Day"?
The Dangerous Mr. NelsonMonday, February 6, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Eric Nelson is a danger to academia. You would not think so from his background. He is the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University. He has had a proper education, at Harvard and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Jerusalem’s Ego and IdThursday, January 19, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Biography is not the same as history. Biography charts the outer and inner life of a person—character, spirit, morality, emotion, perhaps even soul. History, by contrast, incorporates different narratives and pieces of evidence, seeks out new data, then rises above all the fragments with a synthesis.
America the BiblicalTuesday, January 17, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Greeks did not invent equality. Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and the gang famously believed that the rich are different from you and me—not merely because they are shaped by their privileges but because they are actually, literally made of superior stuff.
The Mughrabi Bridge to NowhereTuesday, January 3, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
From the southern end of the plaza in front of Jerusalem's Western Wall, a temporary wooden bridge ascends eastward to the Mughrabi Gate, the only one of the 11 gates into the Temple Mount area that is accessible to non-Muslims.
Highlights of 2011:Part II
Friday, December 30, 2011 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Part II of our round-up of the past year's most popular features on Jewish Ideas Daily. (Part I is here.)
Urban Planning, Hasmonean-StyleWednesday, December 28, 2011 by Elli Fischer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In the early 1990s, construction began on Modi'in, Israel's new "City of the Future." Designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie and located mid-way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Modi'in is in many ways typical of modern planned communities.
Roll, Jordan, RollFriday, December 23, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The mighty River Jordan cuts a tiny ribbon through the geological depression stretching from Syria to Ethiopia. The river's output is paltry, at most two percent of the flow of the Nile. Today it divides Israel from Jordan, both created only in the 1940s. But for millennia the river has been a thread in Western consciousness.
The First War of National LiberationWednesday, December 21, 2011 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
This is the 2,179th anniversary of the world's first war of national liberation. There have been many since. To a surprising extent, such wars have followed the pattern first established by the Maccabees. They, like later heads of independence movements, were leaders of a people conquered and occupied by a great empire.
The Evil InclinationMonday, December 5, 2011 by Raphael Magarik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The yetzer hara, usually translated "evil impulse," is an elusive rabbinic concept. The words derive from God's observation in Genesis 8:21 (paralleled earlier in 6:5) that "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."
Editors' Picks
The Reality of Race Jon Entine, Forward. Historical analysis now depends not only on pottery shards, flaking manuscripts, and faded coins, but on something far less ambiguous: DNA. And the study of Jewish DNA yields some surprising findings.
Caves of Refuge Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz. A fifth mikveh has been found in the caves on the Galilee's Cliffs of Arbel, indicating that the people who lived there under Roman rule were most likely kohanim, Jews of the priestly class.
The Frum Jesus Greg Carey, Huffington Post. Jesus seems to have habitually transgressed the Torah, which the New Testament claims he abolished outright. So why do historians conclude that Jesus lived as a Torah-observant Jew?
What a Friend We Have in Jesus Paula Fredriksen, Jewish Review of Books. Until very recently, scholarly work on the Jewishness of Christianity has been a largely Christian project, but over the past fifty years, in ever-larger numbers, Jewish scholars have joined in.
Genetic Threads Josh Fischman, Chronicle of Higher Education. The story of Jewish origins, once the province of historians and scholars of religion, is now being told by DNA—and it decisively refutes the counter-narratives promulgated by Shlomo Sand.
Cave Canem Nicolas Brulliard, Washington Post. Amid Israel's ambitious program to bring back "the animals of the Bible to the land of the Bible," why is the Canaan dog—Israel's indigenous breed—receiving so little support?
Found in Israel Avigayil Kadesh, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Every day, the Israel Antiquities Authority has 30 active archeological digs. Here, a list of the past 25 years' most notable. (With a glaring omission.)
Saved to Disc Matti Friedman, Times of Israel. A rare glass disc depicting the menorah from the Second Temple in gold leaf was kicked around Europe for two thousand years before the Israel Museum gave it a home.
Descendants of David Nadine Epstein, Moment. From the Baal Shem Tov to the Imperial Solomonic Dynasty of Ethiopia, many have claimed descent from King David. And according to Davidic genealogists, all of them are right.
Losing the Temple Mount Amir Shoan, Ynet. The Muslim waqf which oversees the Temple Mount is allowing archeological sites to be bulldozed, in contravention of the law. But instead of intervening, the Israeli government is covering it up.