Tanach Thoughts

Long time no post. Last week I came across a biblical studies journal I hadn't heard of before, the OTE: Old Testament Essays. It's a South Africa-based journal, but like most academic journals includes papers by authors from around the world, including some Israelis and/or Jews. There were several fascinating articles, but something else also caught my eye: A significant number of papers over the years (I would guess a minimum of 50% of their total papers, for a journal established in the 80s!) have to do with the relationship between the Bible and Africa in general, and between South Africa in particular. Topics include: Bible studies in Africa, what portions of the Bible can be used to understand African history and culture, what portions can be used to assist various aspects of modern African society, how African culture can help interpret certain aspects of the Bible, the Bible as a guidebook for African societies, and more. And so I thought to myself: Wow, this is impress...

Note: I started writing this review shortly after the end of the third lockdown, but never got around to finishing it (translating the section below), so the result is that this is being published over a month after I first started writing this.  Yes! After five weeks (the duration of the third lockdown here in Israel) of chipping away at the book named in the title, I've finished it and can now share with the world all of my very important thoughts on a book that I'm not sure very many people in the world are even aware exists...but I take what I can find (and yes, I found it next to the neighborhood's genizah can)... Introduction To The Holy Scriptures is my translation of the title which is מבוא לכתבי הקודש - Mevo Lekitvei Hakodesh. It was originally written by Shmuel Shrira in Russian, according to Zalman Shazar , who wrote the introduction to the Hebrew edition. Apparently the two were among a group of scholars funded by Baron  Günzburg , which is how they met. My tho...

 ...is not something you'll find in this post. In recent months I've discovered a few commentators that I wasn't aware of or was aware of but not really familiar with, and I thought I'd write a little bit about my impressions of them here. This certainly does not do justice to their character or commentaries. Philo of Alexandria  - Everyone's probably heard of Philo. Though not everyone really knows who he was. Many of Philo's views on Judaism are still shrouded in mystery, but here's a short summary of what we know: He was a religious, observant, Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in Egypt in the decades prior to the destruction of the Second Temple. His birth-name probably was Philon (Philo in Latin languages) which means "friend". Rabbi Azaryah de Rossi translated his name into the Hebrew "Yedidyah", but there were even tannaim at the time who had non-Jewish names, such as Antignos of Socho, so more likely that Philon really was h...

 Hello all wanderers of the internet. I realized today that I need some sort of outlet for all of my Tanach-based thoughts and musings. I have places to post my questions, perhaps even open up a little discussion, but nowhere to just toss my ideas out there. So here it is, a new blog (hopefully I won't give up on it like I did with some of my other ventures). The purpose of this place is to share different ideas and thoughts that I have while researching different aspects of the Jewish Tanach (Bible). Tanach is my most favorite subject of Torah study and these last couple of years I've really gotten into it, discovering that I enjoy writing essays as a means of kind of channeling all my various thoughts, study-discoveries and opinions on what the text is trying to tell us. I have the first Israeli COVID-19 shutdown to thank for my receiving a giant burst of inspiration which hasn't dwindled yet as I've plowed through various subjects in the past seven months or so. Howe...