Tanach Thoughts

Famously, there are two main traditional understandings for the word צהר (Tzohar) used with regards to the description of the Ark: 1. Window. 2. Glowing gemstone used for light. Presumably, the second interpretation is based on a wordplay on זהר (Zohar), which means "glow" or "aura". However, I admit that the logic of the second interpretation was never clear to me. Glowing gemstones are for movies and comics, right (at its base form, you draw the gem and add radial lines around it) ? Wrong! As it turns out, multiple sources from the Roman, Byzantine and early medieval periods, both Jewish and non-Jewish, record the existence of various types of stones that glow in the dark. Rabbi Prof. Daniel Sperber wrote an article on the topic over 40 years ago. And, there is even a Wikipedia article on luminous gemstones . The wiki article dismisses most such sources as unrealistic (as it is often wont to do). I recall, however, seeing sometime in the past, a suggestion by a s...

So, very exciting news that I got just a last night - I was informed by the editors of the journal Megadim that my article has been accepted for publication. They just recommended a few small corrections. Once I send in the final draft they'll start preparing it for publication, presumably for the next volume (64). Don't remember if I've shared in the past, but I can sure share now that the article suggests a new interpretation for the difficultly-phrased verse in Melachim 2:15:25: " וַיִּקְשֹׁר עָלָיו פֶּקַח בֶּן רְמַלְיָהוּ שָׁלִישׁוֹ וַיַּכֵּהוּ בְשֹׁמְרוֹן בְּאַרְמוֹן בֵּית  מלך  [הַמֶּלֶךְ] אֶת אַרְגֹּב וְאֶת הָאַרְיֵה וְעִמּוֹ חֲמִשִּׁים אִישׁ מִבְּנֵי גִלְעָדִים וַיְמִיתֵהוּ וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו." "His aide, Pekah son of Remaliah, conspired against him and struck him down in the royal palace in Samaria; with (?) Argob and the Arieh, and with him were fifty Gileadites; and he killed him and succeeded him as king. The verse describes the assassination ...

Happy to update that Megadim volume 63, dedicated to one of the founders of the journal, Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun, has finally been published and uploaded to the journal's section on the Herzog College website. You can find it here . The journal includes the long-anticipated paper by Gershon Galil and Eli Shukron summarizing some of their new research on inscriptions they associate with King Chizkiyahu. This paper is a reworking of one chapter of their still-anticipated book on the inscriptions, due to come out some time in the near future. Other papers that off the bat look interesting to me (though, knowing myself, boredom and lack of reading material will probably lead me to read most of the rest and discover that others are interesting as well): A paper by Rabbi Prof. Yoel Elitzur on the mentioning of Chiel's building of the wall of Yericho. A paper by Dr. Neriah Klein on Sefer Melachim as a historical reconstruction of biblical history from Beresheet to Shoftim. A paper by Dr. Y...