Tanach Thoughts

Fourty years ago, Steven Bowman published an article discussing the possibly meaning of the name of Khirbet Qumran, which gave its name to the famous scrolls found in its vicinity. In the article he raised the likelihood of the word 'qumran' having Syriac-Aramaic origins and coming from the word 'Kumri(a)' (כומרי, כומריא), which means 'priest(s)' (although in Hebrew this root is usually associated with priests of idolatrous religions, and at some point after the rise of Christianity became the common word for Christian priests, Komer (כומר)). He suggested connecting this with a commonly-accepted notion (although I have some doubts) that the ancient Qumran sect(s) was(/were?) a group of priests or had an association with a priestly sect. The exact identification of the ancient settlement that was located at Qumran is debated. Many have suggested Tanachic Sechachah (סככה), others have suggested Tanachic Ir Ha'melach (עיר המלח) as Iron Age remnants were found

The IAA (Israel Antiquities Authority) publicized today a cool seal from the time of the First Temple recently found near Wilson's Arch in Yerushalayim. The seal features an Assyrian-style winged figure and the name of one Yehoezer ben Hoshayahu. (the newly-discovered seal; image taken from here ) The figure on the seal is usually interpreted as a "daemon" or "genius", a kind of mythological guardian figure from Assyria. This is far from the first time mythological figures and creatures have been found on Israelite and Judahite seals and bullae. In fact, even King Chizkiyahu (Hezekiah)'s bullae feature a variety of Egyptian mythological entities, including a scarab, a winged sun disk, and an Egyptian-style winged figure. (Chizkiyahu bulla w/ winged sun disk and ankhs from Elat Mazar's Ophel Excavations) (Chizkiyahu bulla w/ scarab from private collection) (Chizkiyahu bulla w/ winged figure and ankh symbol from private collection) I'm sure that some p

Last time I updated here on my Levitical Cities paper, it had just been rejected from a fairly prominent Israeli Tanach journal, and I was planning on moving on to a lower tier Tanach journal which is more conservative in its positions, as it's a Dati-founded-and-run journal. However, since then my academic advisor recommended trying at another fairly prominent journal, one which we (well, technically he) had decided originally would reject it. But after many subsequent edits to the original draft, he now thought it might have a chance. That chance started in May when I sent it in. I had hoped that the fact that it took them just over two months to get back to me meant that it had a very good chance, but unfortunately earlier today I was informed that it had been rejected yet again. So on to the Dati journal (basically because there aren't a lot of journals in Israel, and essentially only three that focus on Tanach). I feel let-down because I had too high-hopes that it had a g

I read on Shabbat a cool paper on the meaning of the word "tzinor" (צינור) as it appears in Tanach. The paper, titled "ויגע בצינור", is by linguist Tzion Okashi and was published very recently in a festschrift for linguist Dr. Uri Melammed, "לקט אורות: אסופת מאמרים לכבוד ד"ר אורי מלמד בהגיעו לשיבה", Yerushalayim 2024, pp. 253-263. The tzinor was most famously mentioned by David in relation to his conquest of Yerushalayim. The near-and-dear bit in the post's title refers to the blog's banner, which is a drawing of a midrashic imagining of another of David's conquests, that of an Amalekite city (see more here ). Both conquests featured Yoav ben Tz'ruyah in a lead role. The word tzinor in modern Hebrew means "pipe" but in context doesn't make sense as the meaning of the tanachic word. Shmuel 2:5:6-9 : "The king and his men set out for Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the region. David was told, “You will ne

In memory of מלכיה בן דב גרוס (Malkia ben Dov Gross) hy"d Last night I received the terrible announcement that Malkia Gross, a friend from my yeshiva, was killed in Gaza on Shabbat. Malkia is one of the few people I know who I would describe as being "sharp" and "bright". B"H I know many smart and intelligent people, but there are a certain few people whose brains fall into the category of "sharp", and he was one of them. This sharpness passed into his incredible sense of wit and humor. He recently started teaching math as part of his teacher's certification. Before I went to sleep last night, I asked myself - or Hashem, I'm not entirely sure - why Chizkiyahu merited to have a massive miracle that obliterated the Assyrian army during Sanchariv (Sennacherib)'s siege on Yerushalayim. For a moment I was angry. Here we were fighting for our lives thousands of years later, and while there may have been pocket-sized miracles, we don't g

Yesterday, Shabbat of Chol Hamo'ed Pesach 5784, I said a Dvar Torah by my grandparents' שיחיו house. The DT was about the subject of the Israelites having "borrowed" wealth from the Egyptians. It was essentially a combination of what Dr. Aton M. Holzer wrote here and my answer here  on Mi Yodeya. The gist is that while different answers have been given over the millennia as to why it was okay for the Israelites to take the Egyptian wealth, apparently only Dr. Holzer has provided a reasonable explanation for why they claimed they were merely "borrowing". He suggested that the borrowing was based on a Hittite ritual similar to the Israelite scapegoat ritual (more on that, see here , pp. 16-17) where the Hittites adorned two slaves, a bull and an ewe with gold and colorful wool and sent them away to take away a plague caused by an angry enemy deity. The Israelites told the Egyptians they would take the 10 plagues from Egypt but they had to do it properly: adorn