This prayer begins with a statement that God places “chevlei sheina” on our eyes. But what exactly does this term mean? In our printed siddurim,

I had always wondered what view of dreams was reflected in biblical Hebrew. My initial thought was that Ḥ-L-M might have derived from Ḥ-L-H (sick).

My daughter’s recent engagement led me to thinking about these words. The biblical word chatan means both son-in-law and bridegroom. But most scholars believe that

These words appear many times in the Torah. Since they often appear in the same sentence, it is appropriate to address them together. As to

One of my favorite examples of wordplay in Tanach is at Gen. 18:23, where Avraham is negotiating with God about the destruction of Sodom. Avraham

Did you ever wonder which words in Tanach are not Hebrew but are Egyptian? Others have been wondering as well! In 1953, the classic article

“The Pentateuch and Haftorahs” of Rabbi Dr. J.H. Hertz is one of the most important works of the Jewish religion in the 20th century. To

Reviewing: “Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court,” by David Dalin. Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life, Brandeis. Hardcover, 384 pages, 2017. ISBN-10:

The title of this column alludes to a famous TV show. (For the handful of you who don’t understand it, it is not worth explaining.)

I wrote about this topic before, but in revising my article for my forthcoming book I came across a scholarly article that made me change

In the book of Isaiah, Chapter 6, the prophet has a vision in which he sees God sitting on a throne, with seraphim above him.

Last week, my column dealt with the recital of the Shema in the Musaf Kedusha. I wrote that various sources from the Geonic period had