Israel Must Seek to Come Out Ahead in Its New Battle with Hamas
Bringing the assault on border communities to an end.
March 27, 2019
Nathan of Rome, Author of the First Jewish Dictionary
An 11th-century talmudic encyclopedia.
Nathan ben Yeḥiel of Rome (ca. 1035-1110) was one of the most important talmudic scholars of his day, known above all for his Arukh, a massive and comprehensive dictionary of the famously difficult language of the Talmud—a work written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic with heavy doses of Greek and Persian. Not satisfied merely to define words, Nathan compiled a great deal of other reference information for each entry, creating a work unlike anything that preceded it. Henry Abramson, after a swift survey of Roman Jewish history in the first millennium, tells what is known of Nathan’s life and work. (Video, 50 minutes.)
March 27, 2019
What the Proposed Senate Resolution on Anti-Semitism Gets Right
Instead of treating Jews as a metaphor, it enumerates the ways in which individuals have suffered.
A Key Border Crossing between Iraq and Syria Is about to Fall into Iranian Hands
Completing the land bridge.
By Recycling, a Medieval Jew Preserved a Major Work of Christian Bible Scholarship
The Hexapla in the Genizah.
Nathan of Rome, Author of the First Jewish Dictionary
An 11th-century talmudic encyclopedia.