Part I Biblical Hebrew has many words for “nation” and “people.” I am going to discuss two of them here: אם (om) and the entirely
A friend of mine contacted me with the following question. He was reading a verse in Nach (see below) and noticed that the root ענק
I just acquired a scholarly book on colors in Tanach, so I am ready to discuss some issues on this topic. The book is: “Colour
We all wonder about those long lifespans recorded at the beginning of Genesis. For example, we are told that Adam lived 930 years, that Shet
There is a famous work “Al HaTeshuvah” that summarizes the thoughts of Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik on the subject of repentance. It is a serious
Most likely, Aleinu was composed as a Rosh Hashanah prayer, as the introduction to the Malchuyot verses of the Amidah. It leads perfectly into these
This word איתן appears 14 times in Tanach in various forms. (I am not counting its use as a name.) For example, at Jeremiah 5:15,
I have read hundreds of Rashbam’s insights into verses and know him well as a peshat, (literal) commentator, one of the earliest in the Ashkenazic
Most of us will be surprised to learn that the widespread custom today to repeat the verse (or phrase) started about 100 years ago, based
After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, Josephus went to Rome. Vespasian gave him lodging in the house which Vespasian had occupied before
This week, I will discuss some controversial passages in Josephus (1st century CE): Persecution of Antiochus: Scholars have debated what motivated Antiochus to issue his
Josephus is our main source for much of Jewish history in the last centuries of the Second Temple period. Who was he? Do we have
