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Rabbinic literature is replete with valuable information about the life, manners and customs of the ancients. Many passages in it can be properly understood only in the general frame of its…
Shulḥan ‘Aruk, a term taken over from early rabbinic exegesis in the Midrash and applied to one of the most influential, truly epochal literary creations of Jewish history, has a double or even triple…
[Text:] § 22 The Midrash says: “For the sake of four things were our…
We read in Proverbs:If you make your ear attentive to wisdomAnd your mind open to discernment;If you call to understandingAnd cry aloud to discernment,If you seek it as you do silverAnd…
Is the Jewish tradition inherently liberal or inherently conservative? The answer to this much-debated question is quite simple: yes.
Which is to say that if by “the Jewish tradition” we mean what is…
It was one of the stories from Genesis that most frightened me as a child: the story of Lot’s wife.
She was told not to look, and she looked; and her punishment came swift and horrible. Frozen in…
In what sense is Judaism racist? Does it in general recognize the “holiness” of race and if so, what practical deductions have Jews made from such a theory?
In connection with the Nazi racist…
To Section I, which deals with the Haggadah itself, I have added six other sections.
Section II, entitled “Moses, our Teacher,” is a collation of midrashim, which discuss his attributes…
And it happened that one day, the sons of Jacob went to graze their sheep in Shechem, for they still grazed in Shechem in those days. And when the sons of Jacob were grazing their flock in Shechem…
In sum, many rabbis in these times understand nothing about the spheres and their workings, just as oxen and donkeys lack understanding [see Isaiah 1:3]. They have violated laws, broken statutes…