Posts Tagged: Talmud
Miracles Then and Now
JNS.org - Would you believe that it took a whole year for Chanukah to be recognized as a bona fide Jewish festival? But it’s true. Here’s...
The Day After: ‘Every Day Is Oct. 8’
JNS.org - Every ending is a new beginning. When we conclude each of the five books of the Torah (as we did last week) the reader...
An Eye for an Eye?
JNS.org - I once heard a story about two Jews back in Russia who got into a terrible argument. Their blood pressure was rising fast....
Good Question, Better Answer
JNS.org - Have you heard of an a fortiori legal argument? In the Talmud, it is known as kal v’chomer. The idea is that we...
The Virtues of Difficulty
The nineteenth-century German philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900), initiated a form of modern philosophy known as “existentialism,” which posits that human beings are each individually...
Why Are There Two Talmuds? The Answer: The Diaspora
Recently, a new translation of the Jerusalem Talmud was made available on Sefaria, the free access web interactive platform for Jewish texts that was established...
Human Beings Are Not Basically Bad or Good, We Choose
These pages have recently seen a rather impassioned debate on one of the more fundamental questions of human existence: are human beings essentially good or...
Italian Talmud
The Talmud is the most defining text of Judaism as it is today -- in a way, even more so than the Bible, even though...
Why the Talmud Is the Most Important Text in Judaism
It is always assumed that the most important text of Judaism is the Torah. But while it is true that the Torah is uniquely revered...
New York Times Trashes the Talmud — and the Truth
Leave it to the New York Times to find a way, as an aside in a profile of Israeli author, teacher, and philosopher Micah Goodman,...
Celebrating the Hebrew Language
Where did the Hebrew language come from? When did it begin? What language does God speak? And, for that matter, what language did the snake...
A Request for a Favor From Some of My Fellow Rabbis
I'd like to ask some of my colleagues a favor. I teach Torah for a living, often to people who don't have a lot of background....
Report: ‘Jewish Wisdom Network’ Scam Targets Chinese
A Ponzi scheme called the "Jewish Wisdom Network" bilked Chinese people by playing off the stereotype of Jews as an inordinately successful people, Foreign Policy reported on Tuesday. The scheme apparently enticed...
Why Chess Is Like the Talmud, and Why Jews Love Both
There is probably no game as difficult and captivating as chess. Thousands of books and tens of thousands of essays have been published on how...
