A Sure-fire diet I posted a version of this article in the past but I am reminded about it not only because I practice it daily, and because the message is important, but also because I saw confirmation of it by a doctor on TV. The following is another version on what [...]
Ancients, including Jews, believed their god functions only in their territory Many scholars contend that in the ancient Near East people believed that there were many gods, the power and presence of a god was localized in the territory inhabited by the worshiper, and did not know that all lands belong to [...]
The evolving concept of marriage in Judaism The rabbis changed, or perhaps we should say “updated,” many biblical laws because of a growing sensitivity to what is proper. However, frequently, when changes were made, the rabbis conservatively maintained some of the old practices. Marriage is an example of these two phenomena. The [...]
Does the Torah allow polygamy? The Torah “allows” polygamy, but frowns upon it. Its treatment of polygamy is a good example of Maimonides’ teaching in his Guide of the Perplexed 3:32 where the sage stated that humanity during the Torah’s early history was primitive; while God could change human nature, God did [...]
A Miracle in Baltimore (?) Is it a miracle that the beautiful building of Shaarei Tfiloh Congregation, just 150 feet from where rioters tossed rocks at police and two blocks from stores that were devastated at the Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore during the recent Baltimore riot wasn’t damaged? Here are some [...]
Philo as a Biblical Commentator Philo (about 20 BCE to about 50 CE) of Alexandria, Egypt, is one of Judaism’s great philosophers. The noted scholar Harry Wolfson wrote in his book Philo that Philo was the first Jewish philosopher who “contributed anything new” to Jewish-Greek philosophy. Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel offers readers [...]
The Real Reason for the Additional Day of Holidays Few people know why Jewish tradition added a day to the biblically assigned number for Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot when the holidays are observed outside of Israel, and why a second day was appended to Rosh Hashanah in both Israel and the diaspora [...]
The Origin of Announcing the Days of the New Moon in Synagogues Yesterday, May 17, 2015, as on eleven of the twelve months of the year, many synagogues had their congregants rise as they followed the ancient custom to announce the appearance of the new moon during the Shabbat services prior to the [...]
The holiday of Shavuot occurs next week. I think readers may be interested in what I revealed about Shavuot in my book “Mysteries of Judaism,” in which I showed that none of the biblical holidays are observed today as mandated in the Torah. The truth about Shavuot the non-biblical holiday [...]
Understanding Jonah rationally Should we accept the biblical book Jonah, including Jonah surviving in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights and his brawling with God, as fact or as an internal scuffle? We need to know Maimonides’ view of prophecy and that repentance is not a [...]
The true meaning of prayer Most people feel certain that the current understanding of prayer is the understanding of the concept in the Torah. This is not so. Prayer is defined as a worship service, a religious observance, a devout entreaty to God, a spiritual communion with the divine. The word is [...]
I have been discussing changes made in Jewish laws and practices over the centuries. Open Judaism is a recent movement seeking changes, but only on a restricted basis. What is Open Orthodoxy? Rabbi Avi Weiss, the founder of Open Orthodoxy, defined the movement[1] as being within Orthodox Judaism, “completely committed to Torah [...]
I am studying the biblical book of Jonah and plan to write a commentary on the book that will contain a chapter by chapter explanation of this difficult volume, traditional Jewish views, non-Jewish views which are similar but in which the authors “find” Christian theology, and a rational approach to the difficulties in it [...]
The Sabbath that disappeared and the one that moved My wife Dina and I took an extended 78-day cruise from February 2, 2015 until April 21, 2015 on Queen Victoria beginning and returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the cruise we went through the Panama Canal and visited over two dozen places [...]
I will write several articles on the biblical book Jonah. In this first one, I will point out the difficulties with the story, the New Testament explanations that try to see Christian doctrine in the tale, and the view of a prominent Christian who does the same. In a future article I will summarize the view [...]
Saturday is the anniversary of my dad's death, and I thought it would be proper to remember my parents at this time. Rabbi Dr. Nathan and Celia Drazin My dad passed away in 1976 at age 70, but his story remains. He was a remarkable man. Nathan Drazin was one of eight children, [...]
The odd practice of starting a holiday a half a day early The Bible requires the Israelites to observe Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, currently called Nissan, by sacrificing a lamb, called the Pascal Lamb, and eating it together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This biblical holiday [...]
Should highly intelligent people observe Judaism? I have been saying that the Torah recognized that its laws must change and that Maimonides articulated this idea clearly in his Guide of the Perplexed 3:32. I said also that Maimonides taught that the Torah has three goals: to teach some truths and to help people [...]
Is Religion Based on Philosophy? Maimonides revelation in his Guide of the Perplexed 3:32 that the Torah could not reveal the ideal to the Israelites just out of slavery not only explains why some laws seem so barbaric to us today, it also helps us understand how philosophers read the Torah and [...]
Why were changes made in Torah laws necessary and why should Jews obey these changes since they differ from the divine Torah law? Maimonides wrote in his Guide of the Perplexed 3:32 that the Torah had to write laws that the Israelites could accept, laws that were not ideal. The Israelites accepted “the customs [...]
This article appeared in my book “Mysteries of Judaism” where I point out that all the biblical holidays were changed radically by the early Israelites, Pharisees, and later rabbis. The following practice is an example of such a change. I am repeating it here because the practice will begin this week on the second [...]
The following article appeared in my book “Mysteries of Judaism” where I showed that all the biblical holidays, without exception, were changes by the early Israelites, Pharisees, and later rabbis. I repeat it here because the holiday of Passover occurs this week. Why Was The First Passover Different From All Other Passovers? The Israelites’ [...]
The following article is from my recent book "Mysteries of Judaism" where I showed that every biblical holiday is not observed today as mandated in the Bible. Passover: A dead holiday passed on its name Unlike Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holiday of Passover did not continue to exist in a radically modified [...]
How to read the Bible I have been asked to explain the mystery of the half shekel: why were the Israelites in the desert during the days of Moses required to give a half shekel to be used in counting the number of males from and to certain ages, men who [...]
Karaites discarded the yoke of rabbinic authority One of the groups that found it hard to deal with changes in Judaism and wanted to have Judaism return to practice Judaism in the manner described in the Torah are the Karaites. They are in this respect very similar to the ancient Sadducees. However, [...]
Sadducees and Essene found it difficult to change People find it hard to change despite change being a necessary part of natural law and despite it being obvious that change in many instances is beneficial. Many men, for example, are unable to change and adapt when they marry, and this causes [...]
More on how Judaism changed when meeting other cultures Jewish practices and theology continued to evolve as Jews met people of other cultures such as the Canaanites, Greeks, and Christians. Canaanites Many of the biblical books describe the various practices that the early Israelites adopted as a result of [...]
Judaism changes when Jews meet other cultures We saw that when the Judeans were exiled to Babylonia they replaced the script of Hebrew.[1] As far as we can tell, this was not the only alteration at that time. Among much else, they also switched when the day and year begins. As [...]
Do Samaritans observe the ancient Torah laws? An ancient Jewish group called Samaritans still exists today. Who are they? What is their history? What are some of their practices? Did they change Judaism? Or, are they practicing an early version of Judaism, practices that existed before alterations were made in Torah law? The [...]
The biblical Purim differed from how it is observed today The current practice is that Purim is celebrated as a one day holiday in Jerusalem on 15 Adar as a commemoration of the end of hostilities in the walled city of Shushan, where the battles occurred on 13 and 14 Adar, while [...]
