Biblical History
B’shallah: Who is Like You?
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
Why it's "mi-KHAmokha" the first time and "mi KAmokha" the second time—and why it matters. (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:12:02Bo: The Great Escape
Wednesday, January 16, 2013 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
Why did God kill all the first-born of Egypt? (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:11:17Mikeitz: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
Pharaoh's heart is pounding—not the last time this will happen to a biblical king. (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:10:23Vayishlah: Notes on Camp
Wednesday, November 28, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
Did Jacob have one camp, two camps, or three? In a chapter about camps, it would seem to matter. (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:11:23Vayeitzei: Not Poppy, Nor Mandragora . . .
Wednesday, November 21, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
This week, Reuben brings home some mandrakes—but what happens to them then? (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:11:42Hayei Sarah: She’s My Wife and My Sister!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
The "mother of Israel in danger" stories—and the strange resonance of one of them in this week's episode. (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:11:02Vayera: Testing, Testing
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
Did God put Abraham through one test—or 10? (Click here for source sheet.) Download | Duration: 00:12:37Noah: Viticulture, Viniculture
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: 00:10:36V’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: 00:10:18Ki Tavo: Conceptual Chronology
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
Is “Torah from Heaven” a Myth? Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle. And by “myth,” do we mean an imaginative recreation of the past, or simply an invented past?
Witnesses to the Bible? Matti Friedman, Times of Israel. Two rare 3,000-year-old models of ancient shrines are among the artifacts claimed by an Israeli archeologist as evidence for the historical veracity of the Bible.
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.
Hitler and Pharaoh Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe. The nexus of Passover and Yom Hashoah teaches a single lesson—that persecution of Jews was preceded by the persecutors' sense of victimhood.
What Jews Should Know about the New Testament Amy-Jill Levine, Biblical Archaeology Review. By reading the New Testament in its historical contexts, Jews can better comprehend not only Christianity's polemics, but its point of departure from Judaism.
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.
Will the Real Ahasuerus Please Stand Up? Mitchell First, Bible-pedia. After many centuries, scholars were finally able to identify characters from the Purim story in secular sources.
How Many Came Out of Egypt? Shlomo Karni, Torah Musings. David Ben-Gurion did the math.
Tangled Up in What? Joel Davidi, Toledot Am Ha-Sefer. Josephus refers to "a remembrance upon the arms" (which may or may not be figurative); Aristeas refers to a "sign around the hand" (same). Why are the earliest Jewish sources on tefillin so ambiguous?