Many people are mistakenly convinced that the Jewish holiday of Chanukah celebrates the victory of the Jewish religion over Hellenism and that the enemy was Greece. Neither supposed fact is true. The Jews in Judea, Egypt, and other diaspora countries had a longstanding favorable relationship with the Greeks and Hellenism well before and long [...]

                         The popular notion among Jews is that the biblical prophet Elijah will return to earth from heaven and announce the coming of the Messiah before he arrives.[1] I do not think this will happen. Many Christians, Jews, and people of other religions are [...]

  Jacob’s beloved son Joseph committed some inexplicable acts, raising many questions, such as whether we consider him a good man. Many Jews call Joseph Yosef Hatzadik, meaning “Joseph the righteous one.” Is this accurate? A minority of “pious” people apply terms like “holy” and “righteous” to people and items when the majority feel otherwise. We [...]

     Since people of many religions say they believe in God, can we say that all people believe in the same God? I think the answer is no. I’ll explain why. First, I think the concept of belief is wrong. It was introduced into Judaism by the then-Jewish, later Christian, Paul, who attempted to [...]

                                                                           Famous Jewish philosophers had conflicting views about prophecy and divine providence. People can accept or reject their views. Many Jews are convinced that Jews are judged by their behavior, not by their [...]

I edited Vashti's Daughter to create a link to Amazon so that you can click to buy the book from Amazon.

    Raven West's novel “Vashti’s Daughter” is brilliant. I enjoyed it. Every page. I would call it a fantasy, with the best meaning of the word. It is somewhat akin to J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books, but better. The plot is excellent and moves at a delightful speed. It is very creative and [...]

The Torah does not clarify much about the patriarch Abraham. Much is obscure. This is good. It prompts us to think. And when we think, we learn. And there is much in Abraham’s life that can improve our lives and make it better.   Why is there no miraculous birth story for Abraham as for [...]

  There are remarkable similarities between the biblical story of the flood and the more ancient version of Gilgamesh. The Babylonian epic Gilgamesh was written on twelve tablets around 2000 BCE and has survived in several versions. It was discovered in 1839 among the ruins of a buried library in the excavated ancient city of [...]

                                                                            The Odyssey                                                            Translated by Emily Wilson   I read another translation of “The Odyssey” in the [...]

Dear Friends, I made an embarrassing mistake. I apologize. There is a Yiddish expression, which in English can be translated as “Men think, but God laughs.” The idea is that every human makes mistakes. I want to add, however, that while this is true, it is not true that God mocks us. I wrote to [...]

  There is a greater concentration of miracles in the Elijah and Elisha stories in the biblical book Kings than in the Exodus tales.[1] Are all of them natural events? Maimonides would answer yes, they were natural events, not miracles. In his Guide of the Perplexed 2:48, Maimonides emphasizes that whenever the Bible states that an event, [...]

  The biblical book Kings describes the Deity as Y-h-v-h, as did the Five Books of Moses. It also calls the Deity Elohim, generally translated as “God,” as does the Five Books. Yet, it describes the prophet Elisha as a “Man of Elohim,” not a “Man of Y-h-v-h.” Why? A related question. Are the many [...]

  The weekly portion of Haazinu (chapter 32), the penultimate Torah’s ending, is “The Song.” In it, because he realizes the significance of his message, Moses reemphasizes the benefits and consequences derived from observing and disobeying the divine law.   Jewish law generally requires, with few exceptions, two witnesses to produce evidence in a court [...]

     II Kings 4 describes a troubled woman who discovers her son has died. She rushes to leave her home and seeks help from the prophet Elisha. Her husband did not know his son died. He asks her in verse 23, “Why do you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath?” [...]

    Just as fights exist between religious Zionists, they exist among the Zealots. Judaism is destroying itself. Maggid Books in Israel has reprinted the original 1920 version of the classical mystical book Orot, “Lights,” by the famous Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook. The 2023 publication appears in its original Hebrew with a preface, introduction, [...]

  Yair Ettinger’s “Frayed, The Disputes Unraveling Religious Zionists” is eye-opening. He is revealing a dangerous situation that many people do not know exists. And those who know don’t know how to resolve the problem. The religious Zionist movement today in Israel is splintered. And each side, like squabbling children who fail to realize the [...]

  Professor Rabbi Dr. Michael A. Shmidman described “Isadore Twersky’s Unique Contribution to the Study of The Guide of the Perplexed” in five steps. These were Maimonides’ descriptions of ideal humans. They are people who enhance their thinking and study the sciences to understand how the world functions and use that knowledge to act and [...]

    The parasha Ki Seitzei (21:10-25:19) contains many laws. The Masorites of the first millennium of the Common Era counted 110 verses in the portion. They gave it the mnemonic Hebrew letters ayin lamed yud, whose numerical numbers total 110. The word means “upon me” and suggests that the Jew accepts the many laws [...]

    Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Grossman, a professor at Bar Ilan University in Israel, published Abraham, The Story of a Journey. Maggid Books published it in 2023. The book is brilliant, very thoughtful, and informative. It was initially published in Israel in Hebrew in 2016. Atara Snowbell translated it into English. Her rendition is excellent, enjoyable, [...]

   The parasha Shoftim (16:18-21:9) begins with Moses requiring the Israelites, “You must make judges and officers in every gate that Y-h-v-h gives you for your tribes. They must judge the people with righteous judgment. They must not show any [special] respect to anyone nor take gifts because gifts blind the eyes of the wise [...]

  Two sources support the view that the Torah allows Jewish leaders, including rabbis, to change biblical laws, even radically.   First, the Torah gives multiple hints that its laws are designed for the ancient former slaves who were influenced by the treatments they received and other cultures. They are not ideal but commands that [...]

  The weekly biblical portion Re’eh (11:26-16:17) begins with Moses saying, “See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing is if you keep the commands of Y-h-v-h your God that I command you today. The curse if you do not keep the command of Y-h-v-h your God and turn aside [...]

  As I wrote in my “Mysteries of Judaism IV”: “The first report that the Torah contains 613 commandments dates to the third century CE, when Rabi Simlai mentioned this concept in a sermon recorded in the Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b. The Talmud states: ‘Rabi Simlai gave as a sermon (darash Rabi Simlai): 613 commandments were communicated [...]

   There are multiple changes in spellings and repetitions in Deuteronomy. This contradicts Rabbi Akiva’s view that God dictated the Torah to Moses, even every letter. He claimed that God is perfect and has no need to repeat what is communicated. If there is a change in spelling and seeming repetitions, they must be understood [...]

                                         Reflecting the ancient practice, the original Torah lacked divisions between words, sentences, and sections. These were added at later times. The subject of their introduction is complex because we no longer have all the facts, [...]

   The word orthodoxy comes from the Greek root orthos, which means correct, accurate, straight, and doxa, opinion. It describes accurate belief. Orthodox Judaism is Jews who adhere strictly to traditional beliefs. The first known mention of Orthodox Jews was made by German “enlightened Jews” in the Berlinische Monatsschrift in 1795. The term was most likely developed to mock “traditionally-minded [...]

   The numbers three and seven occur well over a hundred times in Judaism and even more in other cultures, as do their combination, the number ten, including on holy days.[1] The fast day of Tisha b’Av, meaning the ninth day of the Hebrew month Av, seems to be an exception – but is it [...]

  Dr. Micah Goodman says, “No,” in his new book, “The Last Words of Moses.” Deuteronomy is “a human document authored by Moses whose inclusion in the Bible lends it divine authority. Goodman is a Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He was named by the Jerusalem Post [...]

    Dinah is the only daughter of the patriarch Jacob mentioned in the Torah. Her story is mentioned in Genesis 34. Readers, rabbis, scholars, and laypersons differ in how they interpret the story. Some blame Dina for what transpired. Others criticize her parents for allowing her to wander among evil people. But some people [...]