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 [...]
Ezra changed the Torah text Tikkunie Soferim Tikkunei Soferim, which can be translated as “corrections by the scribes,” refers to at least eighteen changes that were made in the original wording of the Hebrew Bible wording during the second temple period, perhaps sometime between 450 and 350 BCE.[1] Most [...]
Changing the Torah by adding stringencies Rabbi Evan Hoffman discussed the phenomenon of rabbis adding stringencies to the somewhat lenient biblical laws.[1] For example, Deuteronomy 8:10 states “eat and be sated and bless the Lord,” which required the Israelites to bless God, that is say a benediction, after eating only if [...]
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 [...]
