Then and Now
A tidbit from the ancient Jewish philosopher Philo (Special Laws 1.186-187): (186) On the tenth day the fast takes place which they take seriously--not only those who are zealous about piety and holiness, but even those who do nothing religious the … [Continue reading] about Did You Need a Ticket for Kol Nidre in Ancient Alexandria?
I received several excellent comments to the last post. I do not have the data to respond to most of them; to assemble just the data – which often requires expert judgment on each of the over 13,000 instances in the dataset – would be a worthy … [Continue reading] about Biblical Books in the Bavli (Continued)
This last year, in an effort to better understand the citation patterns in the Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) and the ways in which the Bavli knew and used the Bible, I developed a spreadsheet that contains each biblical citation in the … [Continue reading] about Bible in the Bavli: The Bavli’s Citation of Biblical Books
This was the purpose of the forced labor (devar ha-mas) which Solomon imposed: It was to bild the House of the Lord, his own palace, the Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem… (1 Kings 9:15) According to the Bible, Solomon depended on this forced labor … [Continue reading] about Our Taxing Forefathers
There comes a time most afternoons when I run out of steam. Tired and bored or frustrated, I have to get away from what I've been working on all day, my "real work". This often happens, as it is now, around 3:30-4 PM. My bus, however, doesn’t come … [Continue reading] about The Joy of Being Wrong