Babylonia
Go to Ammon and MoabMonday, February 25, 2013 by Daniel Gordis | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Imagining themselves to be the wise men consulted on Vashti’s fate, the Rabbis deferred to the Jews’ enemies, saying, “from the day when we were exiled from our land, wisdom has been taken from us."
The Halakhah of Selling ArmsTuesday, February 5, 2013 by Shlomo M. Brody | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Jewish law prohibits individuals from selling weapons to irresponsible or violent customers. But how does this apply to Israel's arms sales to foreign governments?
Does Jacob Hate Esau?Monday, October 29, 2012 by Jerome A. Chanes | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Jews have traditionally kept non-Jews at arm’s length. The rabbinic approach to anti-Semitism may be summarized as Halakhah hi b’yadu’a she-Eisav sonei et Yaakov, “It is an established normative principle that Esau hates Jacob.”
Editors' Picks
Rain Check Arnold A. Lasker, Daniel J. Lasker, Conservative Judaism. The date on which we begin praying for rain is based on Iraqi agricultural cycles and a calendar mistake. But it’s not likely to change before the Messiah comes.
Hear, O Israel? Michael L. Satlow, Then and Now. There is no evidence of public Torah readings until the first century B.C.E. So, how much did the Jews of antiquity know about the Bible?
Archeology Under Attack Christopher Torchia, Times of Israel. After a 90-year closure, the Turks have allowed archeological excavations near the Syrian border at Karkemish, site of a major biblical battle. But now another battle threatens the site.
Darkness on the Deep Philologos, Forward. “Is Genesis’s description of the universe at its inception, before the creation of light, a radically reimagined, reworked and de-mythologized rendering of the Babylonian legend?”