As American Jews hear the story of Ruth and Naomi during the upcoming holiday, they can relate Ruth’s tremendous accomplishments as a penniless immigrant who became the ancestor of a great king to America’s history as an immigrant-welcoming nation. Continue Reading »
Teshuva means return, and return in the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish legal tradition means return to God. It is the word for repentance. Some prominent modern Jewish thinkers have used the term teshuva to refer to the individual or the community’s return to itself. The list . . . . Continue Reading »
The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by robert alter norton, 3500 pages, $125 In 1582, Catholic scholars in exile at Rheims published an English version of the New Testament prefaced by a lengthy explanation and defence of their rendering, which, they said, accorded with the rule of . . . . Continue Reading »
In one of its more famous passages, the Talmud records a debate about the mundane (but important) issue of whether a certain oven can be used to cook kosher food. All of the rabbis except one, Rabbi Eliezer, rule that the oven cannot be used because it is impure. To prove that he is correct and that the oven is pure, Rabbi Eliezer calls on God to perform miracles in the presence of his colleagues—a carob tree is uprooted and moves across a field, a river reverses its course, and the walls of the rabbis’ study hall magically begin to cave in—but the rabbis remain unmoved. Continue Reading »
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