Bible
Whose Akedah Was It, Anyhow?Friday, October 26, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Today, October 26, 2012, the world’s Muslims will celebrate `Id al-Adha, commemorating Abraham’s willingness to demonstrate his love of God by sacrificing his son. While most Muslims assume that the son Abraham intended to sacrifice was Ishmael, this was not the unanimous opinion of early Muslims and Qur’anic scholars.
Biblical PoliticsTuesday, October 23, 2012 by Alan Mittleman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Michael Walzer is a pivotal figure in the recovery of the Jewish political tradition. From his early book, Exodus and Revolution, which traced the impact of the Exodus story on Western politics, through his editorship, with Israeli colleagues, of the projected four-volume Jewish Political Tradition, Walzer is almost unrivalled as a scholar of Jewish political thought.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
The first vineyard, the first glass of wine, and (no doubt) the first hangover. (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:10:36B’reishit: You and I
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
When God said, "Let US make man" . . . who was He talking to? (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:10:49V’zot Hab’rakhah: Where the Bodies are Buried
Wednesday, October 3, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
The strange and confusing name of the place where Moses was buried. (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:10:18Ha’azinu: Nobodaddy
Tuesday, September 25, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
So you're worshipping an un-god? Then God will get Himself an un-people. (But what is that?) (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:11:10Vayelekh: God’s Witness
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
Moses writes down a poem to be God's witness against the Israelites—or is he writing down the entire Torah? With a bonus from Joshua 1. (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:11:22Nitzavim: The Quad Cities of Sin
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
Everyone knows about Sodom and Gomorrah—but what were Admah and Zeboiim? (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:11:44
The Hebrew Bible and the Human MindMonday, September 10, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Yoram Hazony has a bone to pick with Tertullian, the second-century Christian theologian who asked, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
Mysteriously, the Israelites are exiled in the middle of Deuteronomy 28 but are still in their land as the chapter goes on. Is the Torah always written in chronological order? We'll let Nahmanides and Abarbanel tackle this problem. (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:12:08
Editors' Picks
Job and Justice Harold Kushner, Tablet. “If we want to believe that ours is a moral world, the scene of justice and fairness, we need to confront the arguments presented in what is probably the most challenging book in the entire Bible.”
Water of Life Yonatan Neril, Torah Musings. Far from the abundant water supplies of the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Nile, Israel’s reliance on rainfall is designed to remind us that all our needs depend on divine providence.
Proofreading the Bible Aron Heller, Times of Israel. Using the Aleppo and Leningrad codices, Menachem Cohen has spent the last 30 years correcting textual errors in the Bible—and believes he has now produced the definitive edition.
Joshua’s Fire Noah Wiener, Bible History Daily. The discovery of jars of scorched wheat at Tel Hazor dating from 3400 years ago may be evidence of the Israelites’ destruction of the Canaanite city recounted in the book of Joshua.
Fans or Voyeurs? Ilana Sichel, Los Angeles Review of Books. Ex-Orthodox women’s literature is becoming an unlikely subgenre of its own, but the quality of the writing is not quite keeping pace with its popularity.
Bible Boom David M. Weinberg, Jerusalem Post. Israeli journalists are embarrassed by the Bible’s popularity, and petrified that so many people feel the text is relevant.
The Woman Who Slept on a Shelf Shoshana Kordova, Haaretz. No one would dispute Nehama Leibowitz’s brilliance as a teacher and Bible scholar. But in her own words, "Do you think I'd be writing these gilyonot if I had children?!"
A People of One Book Walter Arnstein, H-Net. Timothy Larsen aims to demonstrate the immense religiosity of Victorian England—but, if anything, he understates the case.
For the Love of God Warren Zev Harvey, University of Toronto Journal of Jewish Thought. While the Bible time and again proclaims God's love for Israel, Aristotle denied that God was capable of anything so deficient as feeling—all of which was a headache for the Jewish medievals. (Interview)
The Birth of Monarchy Bible History Daily. New research on the Qeiyafa Ostracon, the inscription found in Khirbet Qeiyafa in 2008, suggests that it is the first archeological evidence of the coronation of King Saul.