Tanach Thoughts

Yup, clickbait title. To my chagrin, I have not updated the blog in quite a while. I've considered a few post ideas but never got around to writing them down. I've spread myself too thin in recent months, trying to balance my doctorate, research assistant commitments, personal research projects, and other things. I'm here just to post something small but perhaps significant that caught my attention last night. I was skimming editions of an old scholarly Jewish Studies journal published by Yeshiva University in the 40s-50s (if I'm not mistaken), called Talpiyot (תלפיות; all articles are in Hebrew). In volume 4, issues 3-4 (published in Kislev of 5710 - winter of 1949), pp. 677-691 there's an article by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher entitled "חות דעת ע"ד המגלות הגנוזות" (An Opinion on the Hidden Scrolls). The Hidden Scrolls in the title is an old term sometimes used for the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were still a very new discovery back in late 1949. In fa...

I'm happy to share that my first Tanach paper has been published and is now available online: Hoham, King of Hebron, Jewish Bible Quarterly 53:2 (2025), pp. 87-96. It can be found both on the issue's webpage and on academia.edu .

Last night I read a fairly new article by Lorenzo Nigro, whom I gathered directs the Rome La Sapienza University excavation project in Tel es-Sultan (biblical Jericho). I've been vaguely familiar of his work since I tore through Iron Age publications last year trying to find mentions of LMLK stamped handles for a uni project. He was also part of a project in Beit Lechem, as well as other projects in Judea and Samaria. One important thing to note is that all of these projects were undertaken together with the "Palestinian" Ministry of Heritage. The article I'm talking about summarized findings from the 2019-2023 season at Jericho. I was quite surprised to see identifications of many sub-strata, perhaps more than I'd ever seen in an excavation report (Early Bronze IVa and IVb? Who ever heard of splitting the Intermediate Bronze in two?). I skimmed the Bronze Age discussions, though. I'm usually more interested in the Iron Age findings. There I received quite a ...

Another paper recommendation, this time a recent one by Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, who reviewed a volume dealing with the question of why Hashem is described in Tanach as uniquely greater and more powerful (and singular) than other (false) pagan deities, if in extra-biblical sources those other deities are described much in the same way as Hashem. I concur with him that this is a thorny, or at least somewhat thorny issue. I am weary of the whole topic of parallelomania - how far do the parallels between the Tanach (as well as later Jewish sources) actually go? I.e., are Jewish sources entirely unoriginal and are built in their entirety, or largely built on older pagan/non-Jewish sources? A popular modern explanation is that Jewish texts, particularly the Tanach, is built upon previous sources as a polemic technique to move Am Yisrael away from idolatry. However, as I said, I am weary of accepting that pretty much all of Tanach is just a tactic to get Yisrael away from idolatry, and tha...

Just wanted to mention a cool article  I came across now, which proposes an innovative understanding for the figure of Reuel, which seems to have been either Yitro himself or his father. The article, by Yacov Balsam, suggests that Reuel was the name of the Midianite high priest, and so, it's not problematic that both Yitro and his father were known by this name, or rather, this title.

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 ...

A few weeks ago, one of my papers was accepted for publication by the Jewish Bible Quarterly! It's a paper on Hoham, king of Chevron (Hebron) during the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan in Sefer Yehoshua. Yep, my favorite: Writing about details in Tanach no one thinks about twice. In this case, the most anyone's done is suggest etymologies for his name. One scholar suggested an Anatolian etymology for his name, from " ẖuẖ(ẖ)a " , meaning ‘grandfather’, with an added Hebrew suffix of " (-a)m " . In the paper I suggest a biblically-rooted etymology, which connects him to various giants mentioned in other books of Tanach, and then propose some background for this otherwise obscure figure. I won't spoil much, but I'll definitely link it here once it goes online (should be in about half a year)! In other news, tomorrow I'll be delivering a lecture on my Levitical Cities paper. I'm super nervous about it. But, in other other news, a non-Tan...

So, a few minutes ago I submitted another Tanach-related paper to a fairly good Israeli Tanach journal. This is not my Levitical Cities paper. I decided to take an extended break from that one to clear my head and finish my BA schoolwork. During my spare time, I focused on three projects in particular: Two Tanach papers and a midrash paper. So, the first of these papers, which was submitted today, is about a curious verse in Melachim, which Biblical Criticism scholars have (naturally) thought to be distorted. I propose in the paper two chiddushim: The first explains why the verse is not distorted and in fact can be explained easily based on a phenomenon found in colloquial Hebrew throughout the ages (yup - from Tanachic times [including epigraphic sources!!] through modern Israeli Hebrew). The second proposes a new interpretation for the verse as a whole, drawing on symbolism and comparison to many other sources. I'd love to share more, but I'd like to see this thing get throug...

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...

Sadly my Levitical Cities paper was rejected once again from the first journal it was sent to. To recap, I first sent it during winter of last year. It was summarily rejected but I was given the option of improving it and sending it in again. It took an entire year, but I finally managed to send it in a little over a month ago. But it has now been rejected once again. Still, largely it went better than last time. Last time it was rejected on the doorstep by the editor. This time it was at least passed along to peer reviewers, so I received a copy of their reviews. Probably mistakenly the editor also passed along a slightly corrected copy of the paper which showed who one of the reviewers was. I always blow out some air with a "pssshh" when I recognize a name. And yes, I recognized the name of the reviewer. He actually complemented me, despite thinking that the paper wasn't a good fit for that particular journal. He thought it should be sent to a different journal, which i...

It's no secret that things have been utterly crazy here in Israel for the last month, what with the massacre and the war and all that. While waiting to be drafted to the reserves, I spent some of my time working on various research projects and I'm pleased to say that on Tuesday I finally got the okay from my professor to send in again my paper on the Levitical cities, almost a year since it was rejected with the caveat that I could send it in again if I fixed it. So, a few minutes ago I finished editing it and sent it in. I hope it'll get accepted this time. If not, I'll have to find a different journal.

 AKA, why hasn't there been a post in nearly a month. Well, I've been incredibly busy and I'm still incredibly busy. And I haven't really had something to post. I'm back on the media team for the second season of excavations at Tel Tibneh, and I'm designing the new logo, plus working on a few other things. My dream is create an artistic reconstruction of one of the areas of the site, but I don't know if I have enough coloring experience for that. I was been cramming instruction videos for the last week or so, plus putting in some sketchbook practice, something I haven't done seriously in...years... Other stuff: I was sick for a few days this past week. I've been working on a paper I would like to try to publish. Not the one that was mentioned here in previous posts. That's on hiatus due to reasons not in my control. This is other paper is what one of my professors would refer to as "P.I." (post-interesting). It actually interests me a l...

A couple of months ago I posted that I had sent in for the very first time an essay I wrote to an academic journal. Well, the editor has finally replied. She sent me a long list of comments. Some of the comments are technical, regarding writing form. But most of them are about the essence of the essay, and I'm not really sure what to make of them. The professor who assisted me in the research and writing suggested we find a time to sit and look over everything, so that's good. In other, but related news, I will be presenting a poster at the archeology department's young scholars conference this Thursday, on the same topic (the Levitical Cities of Yissachar). What that means is that I spent a week designing a poster and then refining and refining. All of this will culminate in about half an hour of me standing next to my poster, pretty much just hanging about (and answering questions should they come about). Kind of like a science fair... I was also asked to design a poster...