This book captures many ancient voices, a collection of literary excerpts from ancient Jewish books: Jubilees, Josephus, 4 Ezra, Qumran Scrolls, Talmud, Enoch, Baruch, Maccabees, Mishna, Judith, Apocalypse of Moses, Philo, Mishna, Ben Sira, and many others, fifty passages to be exact. The excerpts are mostly short, sometimes even intentionally
Apostle Paul was a first-century religious Jew, trained at the feet of the best rabbis of his time. Though he addresses primarily non-Jewish audiences, Shaul often writes as a rabbi, resorting to midrash and employing metaphors to illustrate his ideas. Sadly, his readers are not used to this
I wanted to share with you a Morning Prayer and, more specifically, a musical piece I created based on it. The words of this song are inspired by the words of the traditional morning blessings found in the Siddur (Jewish Prayer Book). The person who is praying in the early
What is this Sign of Jonah? The traditional thinking is that it's Jesus' resurrection, three days and three nights... But the passage may not be so simple as it appears on the surface. Interested in taking a closer look and discovering another way to read the text?
Over the years of teaching, I have often referred my students to the books of Enoch. But most of the time, I did so with some reservations. I knew that the broadly distributed copies they would likely come across would be littered with archaic and hard-to-digest language. Finally,
The Dead Sea Scrolls, considered by many to be the most significant archaeological find of the 20th century, are thought to have been written or collected by an ascetic Jewish sect that fled Jerusalem for the desert 2,000 years
This is a lecture by Prof. Schiffman. Though it was delivered some time ago (2006), most of the material Rabbi Shiffman presents is still relevant and may be new and eye-opening to someone who has not studied the topic
By now everyone has heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And this region of the world continues to furnish the research community with more archaeological discoveries. Another cave in the Judean desert was recently explored. This cave is known today
On the one hand, Leviticus offers us dull instructions for something that does not even happen anymore. Sacrifices, Offerings, the Altar. The Temple has been destroyed for almost two thousand years now. But on the other hand, these instructions to
There is a common sentiment among those who embrace Christ – “Jesus paid it all. That is all you need for atonement of sin”. This is very true, but much more needs to be said about sacrifices in this context. There
The Mishna is a collection of written traditions of the oral Torah in the form of discussion. These discussions were preserved by the rabbis of the first and second centuries CE. A number of English translations of this ancient document
The New Year of the Trees – rosh hashanah la'ilanot (ראש השנה לאילנות) is a special day on the Jewish calendar more commonly called - Tu BiShvat. The Bible is filled with agriculture, yet many of us today are city
Joseph, Jacob’s youngest son, foolishly tells his brothers about his dreams. Torah tells us that the disposition of Joseph’s brothers towards him was extremely negative. In Gen 37:4 we read venisneu oto “and they hated him” velo
The walls of today's Jerusalem are beautiful, but they are not very ancient, going back to the days of Suleyman in the 1500s. Well beneath those walls are the foundations of older walls, but only in some areas.
If you are looking for a way to dig into the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible and get access to great dictionaries and research tools I frequently use, I have just partnered with Logos - my favorite Bible Software. We
Misconceptions about ancient Jewish sacrifice have led scholars to overlook the significance and symbolism of the Jerusalem temple to the ancient Jewish worshippers. The author of "Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple," Jonathan Klawans, challenges the idea that the
In Leviticus 16:1, our reading begins with the words, acharei mot shnei benei Aharon bekarbatam. It says that “Aaron’s two sons died because they drew too close to Hashem.” This is interesting because that is not how their
