An interesting article that seems to have made its way around the Internet this summer is David Benkof’s “Stop Saying Ivanka Trump Converted To Judaism“, in which the author says “Unnecessarily highlighting someone’s status as a Jew-by-choice implies she is somehow...
As reported recently by The Talmud Blog, there has been nearly a dozen completed doctoral dissertations on the Talmud and rabbinic literature last year. These doctoral dissertations have been completed mostly in the United States of America and Israel in...
In this week’s issue of the Jewish Journal, there were not one, but two references to gender in rabbinic literature(!), which is certainly exciting that rabbinic literature is getting some attention in Jewish newspapers. However, I found the description of...
When it comes to lighting candles on Hanukah, the amount of candles lit is now commonly done in an ascending manner according to the night. The original source for this is the following text (bShabbat 21b): תנו רבנן: מצות חנוכה...
Having written earlier about one rabbi in the Talmud who was recorded as having stated nine religious aspirations, I wanted to briefly look at how the Talmud discusses one of them, in particular. One of them is that his portion is...
Last month’s episode of “The Joy of Text” switched up its format for what it’s calling a mini-episode. In this mini-episode, in lieu of its typical format of a main topic, a guest interview, and then Q & A all...
Last week, a new website started up to discuss Talmud from a historical and contextual approach. With two posts thus far, TheGemara.com is a project of Project TABS. So far, Dr. Shai Secunda, who completed his doctorate at Yeshiva University,...
A new Facebook group started up last week to discuss Talmud and other rabbinic literature from a historical-contextual perspective. “The Historical-Contextual Beit Midrash” was created eight days ago by David Staum, having initially sharing the idea on another Facebook group,...
There is a fascinating text found in the Babylonian Talmud that I wanted to explore a little bit, share some thoughts, and, hopefully, at a later point in time, have researched it to provide a greater sense of it. Here...
Not infrequently in the Babylonian Talmud is the Hebrew Bible quoted. But how much of it is quoted? Recently, the numbers were crunched over at Sefaria and they came up with the results. While more than a quarter of the...
