Were the Israelites Enslaved in Egypt?

Did the exodus really take place? To many, this will seem like an absurd question. The book of Exodus has a dozen chapters explaining that it did. Yet recent decades have found at least some biblical scholars casting doubts on the historicity of this story.

Did the Exodus Really Happen?  David Wolpe,  Beliefnet.  Three years after his noted sermon, Wolpe says again that absence of any historical evidence of the exodus "does not ultimately change our connection to each other or to God."  SAVE

Why Were the Israelites Enslaved?  Michael Carasik,  Bible Guy.  An extended treatment of the question, with a byway through Genesis 12 and 13.  SAVE

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Martyr in Waiting

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Khader Adnan, currently under administrative detention in Israel, has announced the end of his 66-day hunger strike in exchange for a commitment by Israeli authorities to set him free on April 17. His pending release raises a moral dilemma.

New in the Palestinian Arsenal  Mustafa Barghouti,  New York Times.  The op-ed writer hails Adnan's approach as a breakthrough in the 64-year-long struggle to destroy the Zionist enterprise.  SAVE

Hunger Strike as Blackmail  Samanth Subramanian,  National.  A case in India prompts complaints that "fasting unto death" can be deeply coercive, a kind of moral blackmail.  SAVE

Democracies and Administrative Detention  Yaakov Lappin,  Jerusalem Post.  Ticking bombs, protecting sensitive sources, and buying investigative time—these are the reasons why democracies temporarily imprison suspected terrorists without trial.  SAVE

What is Islamic Jihad?  Alden Oreck,  Jewish Virtual Library.  PIJ was formed in 1979 by a fundamentalist who found the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood and its successor, Hamas, too restrained.  SAVE

Power and Constraint  Jack Goldsmith,  W.W. Norton.  The constitutional scholar explains the process by which many Bush administration policies, including those on preventive detention, became Obama policies.  SAVE

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Hitting the Jackpot

Who doesn't like Purim? Besides the costumes and candy, the story itself has all the politics, sex, and violence of a juicy HBO series. In case you missed it: "Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy the Jews, and had cast a pur—that is, a lottery—with intent to crush and exterminate them."

Israel New Lotto  thelotter.com.  Information and instruction about how to invest, as Rabbi Avraham Shapira would view it, in Israel's national lottery.  SAVE

I Won the Lottery Because I Donated to Synagogue  Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu,  Israel National News.  Now here's a return on investment . . . .  SAVE

Randomness and Revelation  Ely Merzbach,  Bar Ilan University.  According to one mathematics professor, the principle of probability allows God to intervene in human affairs without contravening the natural laws that God Himself created. (PDF)  SAVE

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Jewish Ethics, from Ancient Bible to Modern Bus

The next time someone tells you that ethical behavior doesn't need a foundation in religious teaching, step onto an Israeli bus (it doesn't have to be the gender-segregated variety) or open a mass-circulation Israeli newspaper and see how religion puts Jewish ethics on steroids.

The Pale God  Aryeh Tepper,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Spinoza begins the process of turning God from an interventionist to a grandfatherly figure sitting in a corner.  SAVE

Hope in a Democratic Age  Alan Mittleman,  Oxford University Press.  Mittleman explains that hope should be viewed as not merely a sentiment but an ethical choice and a virtue that is critical to modern democracies.  SAVE

The Business of Ethics  Havruta.  A Hartman Institute symposium on the responsibilities of the Jewish community toward the needy (PDF; 2010); also briefly summarized here.  SAVE

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The Dangerous Mr. Nelson

Eric Nelson is a danger to academia. You would not think so from his background. He is the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University. He has had a proper education, at Harvard and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Jerusalem and Athens  Leo Strauss,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Strauss's seminal essay on the Greeks, the Hebrew Bible, and the profound differences between the two.  SAVE

Created Equal  Joshua Berman,  Oxford University Press.  While ancient Greece is often considered the cradle of political thought, "the patrimony of modern political thought rests no less squarely in the texts of the Bible."  SAVE

The Bible and the Good Life  Aryeh Tepper,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Arguing with God is one thing. Where is the evidence that the Bible is a philosophical text?  SAVE

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