By Israel Drazin The Biblical vs. Greek Creation Stories – 2 The following is the second of two comparisons of the Biblical creation story with the accounts of ancient pagan myths. They are slight variations of what I published in my book Rational Religion, which I wrote under the pseudonym Daniel [...]
By Israel Drazin The Biblical vs. Egyptian Creation Stories - 1 The following are two comparisons of the Biblical creation story with the accounts of ancient pagan myths. They are slight variations of what I published in my book Rational Religion, which I wrote under the pseudonym Daniel Diamond. The [...]
By Israel Drazin The following is a brief version of an excerpt from “Beyond the Bible Text” by Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner and me that was published in September 2013. We usually put three articles for each biblical portion, generally discussing thought-provoking subjects that people will not find elsewhere. This week’s essay is [...]
By Israel Drazin If the Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1138-1204) is correct that the purpose of the Torah is three-fold – to teach some truths, help people improve themselves, and aid them in developing society – and I think he is right - then it would seem to be wrong [...]
By Israel Drazin This essay is adapted from my book Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind. Maimonides[1] describes how one should understand rabbinical tales and Midrashim,[2] and declares that most people do not deal with rabbinic Midrashim[3] correctly. According to Maimonides, three clusters of people exist, each taking a radically different approach to [...]
By Israel Drazin Two views As startlingly as it may appear to many people today, the fact is that many intelligent religious people did not believe that God created the world out of nothing.[1] In fact, they are convinced that the Bible itself states that God formed the world out of preexisting [...]
By Israel Drazin Let’s examine one High Holiday prayer: Unetaneh Tokef. Rabbis and Jews frequently invented stories to help people understand the meaning of some prayers. Rather than analyzing the depth of prayers, which could alienate people who do not want to undertake this exercise and frustrate others who would not be [...]
By Israel Drazin The Torah has no rule forbidding mixing meat and milk products, but the rabbis introduced the law saying that mixing meat and milk makes both foods not kosher. Jews are told they can eat meat products after cleaning their mouths of milk products, but must wait [...]
By Israel Drazin There is a curious practice among many Jews of picking up a rock or pebble lying by graves of relatives or friends that they visit and placing it on the grave stone or close by it as they leave. Many explanations have been offered, but most people are [...]
By Israel Drazin The following is a brief version of an excerpt from “Beyond the Bible Text” by Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner and me that will be published in September 2013. We usually put three articles for each biblical portion, generally discussing thought-provoking subjects that people will not find elsewhere. This week’s essay [...]
By Israel Drazin The following is the second part of my two-part description of mystical notions with an explanation of the prayer Lecha Dodi. In the first part, I described the mystical belief developed in Safed, Israel, in the sixteenth century, that envisioned God as comprising ten parts that were somehow detached [...]
By Israel Drazin I described in prior essays that Jews, as some other religions, such as Islam, use a lunar calendar and base the dates of their holidays on this calendar.[1] I mentioned some unusual occurrences that transpired because of the use of the lunar calendar. The following is [...]
By Israel Drazin In my essay “The Mysterious Origin of the Monthly ‘Sanctification of the Moon,’” I showed that the practice is based on an ancient fear that the moon that had disappeared and is now seen as only a sliver, might disappear entirely. To forestall this disaster, those who recite this [...]
By Israel Drazin The Real Reason for the Additional Day of Holidays Part Three This essay is taken from my book Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets. Because of its length, I am dividing it into three parts. Since I discussed what I think is the true reason why an extra day was added to [...]
By Israel Drazin The Real Reason for the Additional Day of Holidays Part two This essay is taken from my book Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets. Because of its length, I am dividing it into three parts. To understand the origin of the added day to biblical holidays, we must first understand the [...]
By Israel Drazin The Real Reason for the Additional Day of Holidays Part one This essay is taken from my book Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets. Because of its length, I am dividing it into three parts. Few people know why Jewish tradition added a day to the biblically assigned number for Passover, Shavuot, [...]
By Israel Drazin Most sermons teach proper behavior, but when examined carefully, there are elements in them that frequently seem irrational and untrue. Their messages may be good but, among other problems, the verses used to support the messages may not say what the clerics say they say to [...]
The following is a brief version of an excerpt from “Beyond the Bible Text” by Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner and me that will be published in September 2013. We usually put three articles for each biblical portion, generally discussing thought-provoking subjects that people will not find elsewhere. This week’s essay is from HA’AZINU. While I [...]
By Israel Drazin I mentioned Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz in my two-part article on the basic notion of mystics, the sephirot, and the Friday night hymn Lecha Dodi. I will now give some information about this mystic. Alkabetz (c. 1500-1580) wrote several books but is best known as the author of the very popular [...]
Mystics and prayers Part one By Israel Drazin The following two-part description of mystical notions and an explanation of the prayer Lecha Dodi is adapted from my book Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind. The Sefirot The Zohar is one of the most important books of Jewish mysticism. Mystics claim that it was composed during the [...]
By Israel Drazin Obviously, most people will answer “yes”; but is this a proper answer? If a church or synagogue or mosque is holy, when does the holiness enter the building: when the last stone is placed? Does earth change in one instance from dirt to holy ground? Can a man or woman [...]
By Israel Drazin The following is a brief version of an excerpt from “Beyond the Bible Text” by Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner and me that will be published in September 2013. We usually put three articles for each biblical portion, generally discussing thought-provoking subjects that people will not find elsewhere. This week Jews [...]
By Israel Drazin The following second of my two-part introduction to Judaism’s greatest sage, a man whose works on philosophy, medicine, and law were read by people of all faiths, is adapted from my book Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind. Who was Maimonides? In the approximately fourteen hundred years in which Jews lived under Muslim [...]
By Israel Drazin Part one The following two-part introduction to Judaism’s greatest sage, a man whose works on philosophy, medicine, and law were read by people of all faiths, is adapted from my book Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind. Sages extolled Maimonides Some people are identified as geniuses because they are able to raise daring, [...]
By Israel Drazin In “A Message to the New Chief Rabbis,” in the Jerusalem Post of August 16, 2013, the prominent Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of Efrat, reports the halakhic (Jewish legal) ruling of the highly respected Rav Moshe Feinstein. Rav Feinstein addressed the question: do wives and husbands need a get, [...]
By Israel Drazin The following is a brief version of an excerpt from “Beyond the Bible Text” by Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner and me that will be published in September 2013. We usually put three articles for each biblical portion, generally discussing thought-provoking subjects that people will not find elsewhere. (Chapters 26:1–29:8) [...]
By Israel Drazin The popular concept today is that there is a “soul,” a person’s personality that is separate from the body, survives the body’s death, and lives on for eternity. While accepted as axiomatic by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, is not in the Hebrew Bible. The idea was taken from ancient pagan [...]
By Israel Drazin Virtually all societies and religions, if not all, are paternalistic, belittle women, discriminate against them, and require them to dress and act in ways that preclude them from possibly enticing men. Judaism is no exception. While Judaism is not monolithic and Jews differ widely, many Jews do not treat [...]
By Israel Drazin (A version of this discussion appeared in my book Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind. Many readers may dislike this approach to understanding Jewish practices. However, quite a few scholars read the article and liked it. Some of their comments are included.) Many pagan rites have been given new meaning and elevated over [...]
By Israel Drazin The following is a brief version of an excerpt from “Beyond the Bible Text” by Rabbi Dr. Stanley Wagner and me that will be published in September 2013. We put three articles for each biblical portion, generally discussing subjects that people will not find elsewhere. (Chapters 21:10–25:19) A Law that shows [...]
