Reasons for Hope about Syria
Replacing an enemy with an asset.
May 16, 2025
“I am like a desert owl of the wilderness.”
In Leviticus 11 (read in synagogues just a few weeks ago), the Torah provides a list of animals whose flesh Jews are forbidden to eat. Among them are numerous bird species, which include—according to Phillip Michael Sherman’s identification—three separate varieties of owls. Sherman explores the owl’s symbolic meaning in the ancient Near East, and in the Hebrew Bible in particular:
Replacing an enemy with an asset.
While betraying the Islamic view of history.
A sane man in an insane world.
And its rabbinic critics.
“I am like a desert owl of the wilderness.”
In Leviticus 11 (read in synagogues just a few weeks ago), the Torah provides a list of animals whose flesh Jews are forbidden to eat. Among them are numerous bird species, which include—according to Phillip Michael Sherman’s identification—three separate varieties of owls. Sherman explores the owl’s symbolic meaning in the ancient Near East, and in the Hebrew Bible in particular:
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