Tanach Thoughts

 Yes, I'm aware a few weeks have passed since Chanukah. Yes, I'm aware Chanukah is not (explicitly) mentioned anywhere in Tanach. Yes, I'm aware The Books of Maccabees aren't in Tanach. Nonetheless, an idea for a Chanukah-and-Tanach-related post came to mind over Shabbat, so here it is. Last Thursday, we toured several different sites in the Land of Menashe - well, what was the area of the Tribe of Menashe in Tanachic times. One of the places we visited is called Al-Makhruch. It's thought to have been a fortified site that was manned by soldiers of the Kingdom of Yisrael, after the split of the United Kingdom. Its original Hebrew name is unknown. Near Al-Makhruch there are two other fortified sites, thought to similarly having belonged to the Kingdom of Yisrael. I'm not really sure what the Arabic names of these two little tels are, just know that both are walking distance from the first site and one in particular is connected to Chanukah. Fortified wall ruins E...

Long time no see guys. In-between balancing school and homework, ideas for posts have been little to practically non-existent. But earlier this week I finally thought up of something that is blog-worthy, in my humble opinion (and since I run this blog, that humble opinion is what goes around here... ;)) The first word in the post's title was not really my choice: Last night I told over my new idea to a friend from university and he said: "Hmm. Interesting conspiracy theory..." Personally, I would have gone just with "theory", and I told him that. He proceeded to explain why he thought it was a conspiracy theory, but let's not get into that (he also believes it's wrong to term "Biblical archeology" with any word that has anything to do with the Tanach, AKA the Bible...we won't get into that either today). About a month ago, the archeology department had a field trip to Mt. Gerizzim, and after that we went to meet some of the leaders of the S...