Movies about Bible events are very popular. Many have well-known actors in top roles. They always add actions and conversations that are not in the Bible, usually depict events more violently, and generally reflect the film writer’s view of what Scripture says. Many viewers are convinced they are watching a dramatization of what the [...]
When we understand what history is, when it began to be considered, how it changed over time, and what truth is, we will realize that history can't be entirely accurate. History is an attempt to understand the past by studying and interpreting human and non-human occurrences, using all available evidence to create narratives that [...]
There are two non-biblical books about the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. They differ in style and purpose. 1 Maccabees is more chronological and focuses on the military fight and initial victory. In contrast, 2 Maccabees addresses the religious aspects. It focuses on martyrdom, divine intervention, and the purification of the [...]
My prior essay spoke about mistranslations. This one continues the discussion by focusing on two holy days with somewhat similar names, but they are totally different. Each occurred on the tenth day of the Jewish month Kislev, ten days after Rosh Hashanah, the New Year holiday, but in other eras. The first to occur, [...]
Very few books have had a profound impact on humanity and hold an enduring, influential place in people's minds and behaviors, such as the King James Bible. It was published in 1611 under the patronage of King James VI and I. It shaped not only religious life for centuries but also the very contours of [...]
Pirkei Avot, "Ethics of the Fathers," is a Jewish text that compiles ethical teachings and moral wisdom from a wide range of rabbinic sages. It is unique among the Mishna's tractates for focusing on character development and daily life rather than legalistic rules. It was composed around 190–230 CE. Is it more important than Jewish [...]
The 515-page 2025 exceptional book “Accepting and Excepting: On Pluralism and Chosenness out of the Sources of Judaism” is by Raphael Jospe, one of the most respected contemporary voices in Jewish philosophy. Jospe gives readers very readable, profound, learned, and deeply humane ideas on one of the central questions of our time: how religious people [...]
Rabbi Dr. Irving Yitzchak Greenberg, also known as “Yitz Greenberg,” was born on May 16, 1933. He is an American Modern Orthodox rabbi, historian, theologian, and author. He was ordained as a rabbi in 1953 by Yeshiva Beis Yosef in Brooklyn, where he said, “The Yeshiva taught that the Torah’s goal was to make [...]
The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai The Nobel Prize jury called seventy-one-year-old Hungarian author, born in 1954, László Krasznahorkai, “a great epic writer in the central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterized by absurdism and grotesque excess.” His family hid [...]
Kotsuji’s Gift: The Daring Rescue of Japan’s Jewish Refugees by Jundai Yamada, published in 2025, is a powerful and touching work that sheds light on a unique figure in World War II history. Yamada shares the story of Setsuzo Kotsuji, a Japanese scholar, university professor, and Japanese government official whose moral courage and compassion [...]
The 2025 book “The Art and Practice of Living Wondrously”, edited by Ronit Ziv-Kreger, is not just another inspirational book. It is a spiritual and psychological guide with a practical, well-stocked toolkit for navigating life’s messiness with grace, curiosity, and courage, leading to growth and joy. It is a remarkable collection filled with wisdom [...]
Rabbanit Yael Leibowitz presents a fascinating interpretation of the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, relevant today, in her easy-to-read 2025 book, “Ezra-Nehemiah: Retrograde Revolution.” She writes that during the period of Ezra and Nehemiah, life was filled with disappointment, “but discontent and gratitude...can coexist. The difficulties of the period are conceded, but the [...]
Barry Strauss’s book, “Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire,” will surprise most readers and give them much fascinating and surprising information. We learn, for example, that Jews did not need to engage in long-lasting battles against Rome, lose sovereignty over their country, and have many of its citizens [...]
I have been suffering very much from the COVID-19 plague for more than a month, when I could not read or write and was often confused. For example, I thought Rosh Hashanah was Sukkot. I am just now beginning to get better. I will write more next week. Israel
The seventh weekly biblical portion in Deuteronomy, Ki Tavo, teaches that knowledge of history helps people grow and gives many other benefits, while ignorance of it is detrimental. In Deuteronomy 23:3-5, the Torah instructs the Israelites to bring a basket of first fruits to the priest at the tabernacle and recite a verse that [...]
Lying is one of humanity’s oldest behaviors. People of every culture in every generation have told lies. Some were small, others were large and life-altering. The biblical book Genesis begins with a tale that some commentators insist reveals that Adam’s wife lied when she said we were told not to eat from a particular [...]
Both the command to be sensitive to a mother bird in the sixth of the eleven weekly biblical portions, Ki Tetzei, in Deuteronomy 22:6-7, and the command to honor parents in the Decalogue in Deuteronomy 5:16 and Exodus 20:12 promise a prolonged life. Why do these acts merit a long life? What is the [...]
In Exodus 24:7, the Torah reveals that when Moses conveyed God’s commands to the Israelites, the people responded, “All that the Lord said, we will do and hear.” Does this make sense? Shouldn’t they have listened first? Some people today claim that this sentence is nonsense, what the Scots call blatherskite. They say, [...]
The fifth weekly biblical portion in Deuteronomy is Shoftim, “Judges.” The rabbis who were descendants of the ancient Pharisees saw this portion supporting the views of the Pharisees and not those of the Sadducees. The ancient Sadducees ceased to exist after the second temple was destroyed in 70 CE, and were later [...]
In the Holiness Code in Leviticus 19:18, the Torah states, "Love your neighbor as yourself." It emphasizes that proper conduct must exist in relationships between people, not just towards God. The New Testament repeats the command in Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:31. In these verses, Jesus is responding to questions about the greatest commandments and identifies loving [...]
Once we understand that God, or, if you prefer to think, nature, is not manipulating us, and we have been given intelligence to use to make decisions, and free choice to act as we want, even if we act contrary to God’s will and the laws of nature, we will realize the importance of [...]
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (384-322 BCE) mentioned a fundamental teaching: virtue is not determined by something present in an individual from birth, but instead is developed through repeated actions and habits. He said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Proper behavior is the result of habits." By consistently practicing virtuous behaviors, people can develop [...]
Were the five books of Moses revealed to the Israelites by God during the Israelite sojourn in the Sinai desert for forty years? Is the text of these five books that we have today the same as the one that was revealed by God, or, if not revealed, the same as the one that [...]
The second weekly biblical portion from Deuteronomy is Va’etchanan. In 4:2, it contains the command, “You must not add to the word which I command you, nor diminish from it.” Rabbi Ronald D. Price offers examples in his book Divrei Halev that his teacher, Professor Halivni, quotes from the Talmud. He notes that most [...]
Eleven-year-old girls and their parents will enjoy Pirkei Hallel during the year the girls prepare for their Bat Mitzvah, which occurs when they are twelve. The book will make their experience more meaningful than it would be without it, and will create a lovely and pleasurable memory that will last a lifetime. Two [...]
David Weiss Halivni Rabbi Professor David Weiss Halivni, born on September 27, 1927, and died on June 28, 2022, at age 94, was born in what is today called Ukraine. His parents separated when he was 4 years old, and he grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Isaiah Weiss, a Hasidic rabbi [...]
In the ninth weekly biblical portion, Matot (30:2-32:42), in chapter 31, the Israelites take vengeance against the nation of Midian for their attempt, described in the previous portion, to destroy the Israelites. In 31:6, “Moses sent a thousand from each (of the twelve) tribes together with Pinchas the son of Eleazar the priest [...]
The eighth biblical portion in Numbers is Pinchas (25:10-30:1). It begins in the middle of chapter 25. In the prior section 25:1-9, we read the episode of some Israelites “committing harlotry with Moabite women.” Verse ten starts a new event, in which God praised Phinehas for killing an Israelite male and a Moabite [...]
Jewish wedding ceremonies are filled with symbolism. The fundamental elements of a wedding are the chuppah (the wedding canopy), the statement made by the groom to his bride, in which he declares his intention to take her as his wife, and her acceptance of him. The rabbi does not create the marriage. Rabbis only [...]
The seventh weekly biblical portion in Numbers is Balak (22:2-25:9). It is the tale of the non-Jewish prophet Balaam, whom the non-Israelite King Balak hired to curse the Israelites, hoping the curse would weaken them. The king was frightened for the safety of his country when he saw Israel advancing toward Canaan. The Bible [...]
