There are not 613 Biblical Commands There is a concept that there are 613 biblical commands. However, a careful examination reveals that there is no biblical teaching that there are 613 commands, and there are far less than 613 biblical commands. Rabbi Simlai’s Sermon The first report that the Torah [...]
Must a Jew Comply with a Rabbinical Decision He Knows to Be Wrong? Rabbi Solomon Yitzchaqi (1040–1105), better known as Rashi, the acronym of his name, makes a rather remarkable and, in the mind of many, counterintuitive statement in his commentary to Deuteronomy 17:11. In the commentary, he states that a Jew is not [...]
Hasdai Crescas: Jewish Philosophy Unintentionally Including Christian Beliefs One of the most tragic occurrences in Judaism’s long history is the frequent absorption of alien, often heathen and Christian notions.[1] This occurred not only amongst the uneducated masses; rabbis fell prey to this phenomenon as well, simply because they did not know Jewish history [...]
The non-biblical notion of holiness The concept of “holiness,” meaning that something or someone is sacred does not exist in the Bible. The biblical Hebrew word kedushah, which is usually translated today as “holiness” means “separate.” When the Bible asserts that God is holy it signifies that God is totally separate [...]
The Origin of Sin There is no concept of “sin” in the Hebrew Bible as a distorting stain upon the soul that requires a kind of supernatural atonement or cleansing process, as the concept is understood today. To the contrary, wrong behavior is seen in scripture in a rational, natural way. [...]
The Rejection of Maimonides’ “Jewish Beliefs” by Recognized Jewish Scholars and Rabbis Studying Maimonidean thought means coming into contact with rational ideas that are not considered mainstream in Jewish philosophy. In his The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised, Marc B. Shapiro examines the thirteen principles that Moses Maimonides [...]
A Free Book Would any of you like to receive a copy of my latest published book, “Unusual Bible Interpretations: Judges” on the condition that you write a review and place the review on Amazon? If you live in the US or Canada and want a hard copy (the book itself), give me [...]
What does Maimonides teach? The great philosopher Maimonides is misunderstood by many people, most of whom need to see him saying what he never said. Maimonides’ God Maimonides’ God is transcendental, meaning God is not involved in the daily activities of the world. God either created the world out of [...]
Is the Bible Really the Source of Philosophy? One of the fundamental questions posed by Jewish philosophers has always been, ironically, whether Judaism has a philosophy at all and where that philosophy stems from. Many people consider Philo the first Jewish philosopher, claiming that he introduced Greek ideas into Jewish thought. Yet he [...]
The Mystery Founder of Rabbinical Judaism Most people, including many rabbis do not realize that Rabbi Akiva revolutionized Judaism and that many people consider his methodology non-rational. Judaism until the destruction of the second temple in 70 CE, was temple oriented. Several major sects existed during the final centuries of the temple: [...]
A Joke A young man knocks on the door of a great Talmudic scholar. "Rabbi, I wish to study Talmud." "Do you know Aramaic?" "No." "Hebrew?" "No." "Have you ever studied Torah?" "No, Rabbi, but I graduated from Harvard summa cum laude in philosophy, and received a PhD from Yale. I'd like [...]
Maimonides’ Great Secret: A New Understanding of the Bible One of the most overlooked revelations of Maimonides, one that profoundly affects how the Bible should be interpreted, is the clarification that he gives in his Guide of the Perplexed 2:48. This important insight is contained in the last chapter of the second of his [...]
Is Rashi’s Bible Commentary Rational? Certainly Rabbi SolomonYitzchaqi (or Shlomo ben Isaac, 1040–1105), known by the acronym Rashi because of the initials of his name, is the most beloved and most popular of all Bible commentators. The Encyclopedia Judaica calls him “the leading commentator on the Bible and Talmud.” Virtually every Jewish child, [...]
Mezuzot is arguably not biblically required In my prior essay I offered the idea that it is likely that the command to wear Tefillin is not biblical but was started by Jews who copied the Greek practice to wear amulets. Instead of placing the names of idols in their amulets, the Jews [...]
Tefillin are arguably not biblical requirements Rabbis have taught that the command to wear Tefillin is contained in four passages Exodus 13:9, 13:16, and Deuteronomy 6:8-9, and 11:18, and these passages were placed in the Tefillin boxes. The passages do not mention Tefillin but say, quoting Exodus 13:9, “And it shall [...]
The Thrice-Told Tale of the Likeable and Loathsome Lilith Aside from the few astonishing legends about regal amazons who retained control over their spouses and men in general, world history has unfortunately continually assigned a submissive and subservient role to women in the home and in society. Since Judaism is not monolithic, [...]
Maimonides’ Concealed True Teachings: Prophecy and Angels Even in his youth, philosophy was an integral part of Maimonides’ life (1138-1204). He wrote a volume on logic when he was still quite young – scholars are uncertain of the exact date, but suppose that he composed his first works in his early twenties. He [...]
Demons and Sympathetic Magic in the Passover Seder We saw in the prior articles that the belief in demons, the power of sympathetic magic to conjure the appearance of the messiah, the use of an intercessor to obtain God’s attention, and the belief in the effectiveness of magic numbers to help accomplish [...]
Gay Marriages This following is something to think about when considering whether American society should allow gay marriages. The principle argument against gay marriages is that it is opposed by the Hebrew Bible. Actually, the Bible does not mention marriages. No marital ceremony is mentioned or even implied. In fact, the [...]
The Mysterious Origin of the Monthly “Sanctification of the Moon” When a person examines the history of a religious practice, or any practice for that matter, he or she must be careful not to insist that the original motivation of the ritual is the same as the reason for the observance’s continued practice [...]
The Wisdom of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Change is necessary Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks published “Lessons in Leadership” in 2015. Professor Ronald Heifetz who wrote the Forward points out that the rabbi is stressing that people of all religions and cultures should not sit passively and rely on the decisions of authorities [...]
The strange view about a diabolical evil inclination The belief in an evil inclination that is independent of the human body and that works to incite behavior that is detrimental to the body, like the similar concept of evil angels, is so widespread today among Jews and non-Jews that it is hard to [...]
The Bizarre, Irrational, and Harmful Belief in Evil Angels Since demons and evil angels played such a large part in the lives of many Jews, it is advisable to explore the origin of the belief in some depth. The average Jew today is convinced that angels exist. He or she is certain [...]
The Tashlich Ceremony: Another Bribe to Silence Satan Tashlich is a rite like kapparot whose non-rational basis is very obvious. The tashlich ceremony preserves a superstitious belief held by the Jewish masses of ancient times concerning water and the divine beings that dwell around it. The rite has been reinterpreted over time, [...]
The unreasonable view of some rabbis about conversion Conversion into Judaism is not an ancient idea although rabbis prefer to say that it is. For example, there is good reason to believe that the rabbis misinterpreted Deuteronomy 17:15 which states “One from among your bothers shall you set as king over [...]
The Non-Jewish – Indeed, Anti-Jewish – Origin of Kapparot While the shofar came to be seen as a rational and important part of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, the same cannot be said of the kapparot and tashlich rites that are still celebrated by many Jews. Thus, while Maimonides included [...]
The Kosher Grapevine Wine is an essential part of Judaism. It is mentioned 136 times in the Hebrew Bible, sometimes to emphasize its possible harmful effects on people, as with Noah, Laban, and King Ahasuerus; sometimes as part of the sacrifice that was offered to God, as in the book of Leviticus and [...]
The Shofar Scares and Confuses Satan, Keeping Him at Arm’s Length It is absolutely certain that both the spiritual leaders of Jewry and the masses of uneducated Jews (or at least the majority of these) before, during and after the talmudic period believed that the shofar, the ram’s horn, was blown on [...]
The Generally Unknown Mystery of Rashi’s Commentary Many individuals of all faiths use the commentary of the famed biblical and Talmudic French rabbi Rashi (1040-1105) to help them understand the Bible. Rashi is a master writer. His commentaries are short, to the point, clarifying, and interesting. People enjoyed his explanations so [...]
The Strange Book of Jubilees vs. The Torah, part 2 This is a continuation of "The Strange Book of Jubilees vs. the Torah" where we saw that the author was convinced, among much else, that the count of years from creation is not identical to what we see in the Torah, and the [...]
