While Pursuing a Thaw with Israel, Saudi Arabia Foments Anti-Semitism at Home
A double game.
July 18, 2018
Why the Talmud Cares So Much about the Rites of a Destroyed Temple
A new book upends the old story.
In the story told in countless works of Jewish history, and countless Jewish-studies classes, Judaism was until the year 70 CE—when the Romans tore down the Second Temple—a religion focused on the sacrificial cult. Thereafter, the rabbis who composed the Talmud transformed it into the religion of law and study that we know today. But this story fails to account for the enormous attention paid to the Temple and its rituals by the rabbis who lived and wrote in the 2nd through the 6th centuries CE. Mira Balberg offers an alternative view in her book Blood for Thought, as Shai Secunda writes in his review:
July 18, 2018
What’s Next for the Iran Nuclear Deal, and What That Means for Israel
Jerusalem must decide on its red lines.
Why the Talmud Cares So Much about the Rites of a Destroyed Temple
A new book upends the old story.
Was the Author of Samuel a Political Philosopher?
Or simply a partisan observer?
An Ancient City Gate and a Rare Tower from the Time of King David
The earliest in the land of Israel.