Tanach Thoughts

Time for something a little different. Last Shabbat's parasha was Beshalach, which included the introduction of the manna (מן - man). According to Shemot 16:33-34 , Moshe told Aharon to take a jar of sorts (the modern Hebrew צנצנת (tzintzenet) refers to a glass jar, but Rashi interprets  it to mean the more likely pottery vessel of sorts), fill it with manna and place it somewhere for safekeeping. This was eventually put into the Ark of the Covenant for all time. Fast-forward thousands of years later: Ramban (Nachmanides), having narrowly escaped from the clutches of the Church of Aragon after having utterly crushed the Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani in the infamous Disputation of Barcelona , disembarks from a ship at the port of Akko (Acre) in the Land of Israel and settles down there, before passing away some three years later. While there, he sends letters to friends, family and acquaintances in Europe. One of the letters was particularly famous as it was mentioned by a number...

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...

 Warning: This post is at least a little political, so if that's not your thing, feel free to not read. :) As mixed Jewish and Arab cities in Israel continue burning, many people, myself among them, have been thinking about the myth of multiculturalism. A concept pushed by the West, that all cultures can coexist peacefully. I say myth, because I think the last week or so bear evidence that this claim is not true. This eventually led me to wonder what the Tanach says about multiculturalism. Of course, the Torah already tells us "You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws" ( Vayikra 18:3 ). From this verse and surrounding ones we have the halachot of "chukot hagoyim" and "darkei ha'emori"; i.e. t not follow the practices of the non-Jews. But say we don't follow their ways and merely allow them to coexist with us, or say we don't foll...