Essays on the Hebrew Bible

Genesis

Creation and Noah

• The Meaning of 'Be-Reishit' paper
• What is the Light on Day One?
• The Canaan-Ham Curse Conundrum
• Noah's Original Identity: The First Winemaker
• A Textual Study of Noah's Flood

Abraham and Isaac

• Is Sarah Old or Young when Taken by Abimelech?
• The Mysterious Land of Moriah
• Lot's Absence in Abraham's Plea

Jacob and Joseph

• The Source of Jacob's Two Blessings
• Choosing a Wife: Did Jacob Get it Right? paper
• How is it Possible that Jacob Mistakes Leah for Rachel?
• Maternal Impressions: From Sheep to Humans
• The Covenant of Laban and Jacob at Gal-ed
• Our Stepmother: Keturah
• Abraham's Premature Obituary
• Who Was Rebekah's Father?
• Where Was Rebekah's Father?
• Edomite Kings List: Is It Post-Mosaic?
• Living as Neighbors
• Joseph in Custody: Enslaved or Imprisoned?
• Jacob the Conqueror of Shechem
• Jacob's Multiple Death Scenes

Exodus

The Exodus Story

• Moses Always Knew He Was a Hebrew — and So Did Everyone Else
• How God's Revelation of the Name YHWH Continues to Enlighten
• The Resumptive Repetition
• How Does God Answer the Question: What is Your Name?
• Exodus Through Deception
• The Missing Speeches in the Slave Narrative and the Samaritan Pentateuch
• Sacrificing a Lamb in Egypt
• Shepherds and Eating with Hebrews: An Abomination to the Egyptians?
• What Really Happened at the Sea?
• The Torah's Exodus

Laws

• The Prohibiton of Meat and Milk
• Bring the Man to the Carcass or the Carcass to the Man?
• Israelite Festivals - From Cyclical to Linear Time paper
• The Law of the Hebrew Slave

The Tabernacle and the Golden Calf

• Living as Neighbors
• The Cherubim
• Punishing Children for the Sins of their Parents
• Does YHWH Remit Punishment?
• The Other Ohel Moed
• The Prohibition of Shaving

Leviticus

• The Purification of a Niddah: The Torah Requirement
• Bald Spots on Clothing: A(n Un)Missable, Ancient Scribal Error
• The Parturient's "Days of Purity": From Torah to Halacha
• "This is the Torah" for the Priests Performing the Offerings
• Postpartum Impurity: Why is the Duration Double for a Girl?
• Hope and Curses
• Black or Yellow Hair: A Scribe Miscopied the Laws of Tzaraat
• At 33, You Will Discover Azazel's Secret

Numbers

Scouts & Spies

• Unscrambling the Scout Story with the Documentary Hypothesis
• Caleb the Kennizite's Connection to Hebron
• Kiryat Arba: Father of Giants, City of Four
• Kiryat Arba is Hebron: Is It?
• Why Was Joshua Singled Out by Moses?

Narratives & Genealogies

• Pre-Biblical Aaron, Moses, Miriam
• Moses' Father-in-Law: Kenite or Midianite?
• Korah, Datan and Abiram: A Case Study of Academic Methods
• What Do Genealogies Teach Us About Torah?

Laws

• Elazar Speaks Once: Why Does he Interrupt Moses?
• Joshua Appointed Three Times: But is he in Charge?
• The Midianite War: Where is Joshua?
• Ma'aser for the Times: Temple Tax to Charity and Back
• How Many Trumpet Blasts to Travel?
• Redemption of the Firstborn: a One-Time Event
• Sotah: A Purification Ritual for an Adulteress Revised into an Ordeal

Deuteronomy

• The Opening of Devarim: Redaction Criticism and Modern Midrash
• The Opening of Devarim: A Recounting or Different Version of the Wilderness Experience?
• The Mitzvah of Covering the Blood of Wild Animals
• Haazinu: The Song's Enigmatic Climax
• Unspoken Hemorrhoids: Making the Torah Reading Polite
• Does the Torah Really Want Us to Appoint a King?
• Marrying Your Daughter to Her Rapist: A Test Case in Dealing with Morally Problematic Texts
• Marrying a Captive Woman
• Law of the King
• Can the Torah Contradict Halachah? The Ibn Ezra vs. Rambam

General

• Kosher Torah Text? Three Generations of Maimonides, Strict to Lenient
• Pseudo-Philo and the Pharisees: A Look at the Prehistory of Rabbinic Judaism paper
• Assumptio Mosis and the Eschatology of Despair paper
• Religion in Eighth Century Judah paper

• The Conquest of Jerusalem: When and Who?
• Snippets from a Lost Joshua Cycle - The Prehistory of an Israelite Hero paper
• Jerubaal, Jacob, and the Battle for Shechem - A Tradition History paper
• Timnat Heres and the Origins of the Joshua Tradition paper
• Images of Joshua in the Bible and Their Reception book
• מתי הפכה ירושלים לעיר ישראלית Hebrew

Passover

• Spilling Wine: Protection from the Plagues
• What is Better than Wine?
• An Abomination to the Egyptians?
• Exodus Thrugh Deception
• The Torah's Exodus
• How Matzah Became Part of the Story
• מדוע אנו אוכלים מצות בפסח Hebrew
• Splitting the Story of the Sea
• The Four Sons
• Sacrificing a Lamb in Egypt
• The Missing Speeches in the Plague Story

Shavuot

• What Torah Did We Receive?
• The Omer - When?
• זמן מתן תורתנו Hebrew

Sukkot

• The Origins of Sukkot
• Summoning God on Hoshanah Rabba
• An Ancient Rain-Making Ritual
• Kohelet: Is All Futile?
• Israelite Festivals paper
• טקס זימון האל Hebrew

High Holidays

• The Sins of Their Parents
• Does God Remit Punishment?
• The Anxiety of Autumn

Purim

• Unraveling Megillat Esther
• The Assassination Plot
• Ahasuerus and Vashti in Midrash
• In Defense of Vashti
• The Achaemenid Persian Empire
• סיפור בגתן ותרש Hebrew
• Vashti's Bad Rap
• Persia's Achaemenid Dynasty

Tisha B'Av

• Why Jews Fast
• On What Day Were the Temples Destroyed?
• ?יותר מתשובה אחת, מתי בדיוק נחרב בית המקדש Hebrew

Chanukah & Minor Holidays

• Chanukah: Not Judah Maccabee's Holiday
• Nicanor Day
• Cancelling Megillat Ta'anit
• Why Hanukkah Became Such a Big Deal

Theology

Torah of Moses?

• Avraham Avinu is My Father
• Torah is From Heaven: What Do We Mean?
• How is the Torah like the Mishnah? A Textual Look at the Story of the Jews
• Seven Torah Passages of Non-Mosaic Origin
• R. Yehudah HaChasid's Radical Suggestion: The Song of the Well
• The Edomite Kings List: Is It Post-Mosaic?
• The Significance of Ibn Ezra's Position that Verses were Added to the Torah
• Torah Min Ha-Shamayim: A Guide to the Four Questions
• Ibn Ezra's Secret: The Opening Chapters of Deuteronomy
• The Torah's Exodus

God, Truth, and Ethics

• Virtue Signaling or Speaking Out: Ezekiel versus Jeremiah
• God, Consciousness, and the Problem of Anthropopathism PDF
• Marrying Your Daughter to her Rapist
• Messianic Judaism and Jewish Christianity
• Jewish Perspectives on Revelation Q&A
• Developing a Relationship with God Q&A
• Can the Torah Be a Moral Authority in Modern Times?

• Traditional Torah Study vs Scientific Analysis
• Can Orthodox Education Survive Biblical Criticism?
• Torah, TheTorah.com, and the Recent Tumult in Context
• Digging Archeology - A Report from the Trenches
• A Theology of Reversed Racism

Articles and chapters

• Struck Down by a Woman: Abimelech's Humiliating Intertextual Death (Reading Gender in Judges, SBL 2023) paper
• The Samaritan Books of Joshua (Book Seams in the Hexateuch II, FAT 168, 2023) paper
• Moses the Transjordanian Prophet (HUCA 90, 2019) paper
• Israelite Festivals: From Cyclical Time Celebrations to Linear Time Commemorations (Religions, 2019) paper
• Joshua the Savior of Gibeon: Reconstructing the Earliest Layer of the Joshua Account, with Jacob L. Wright (Book Seams in the Hexateuch I, FAT 120, 2018) paper
• Religion in Eighth-Century Judah: An Overview (2018) paper
• Snippets from a Lost Joshua Cycle: The Prehistory of an Israelite Legendary Hero (2017) paper
• Pseudo-Philo and the Pharisees: A Look at the Prehistory of Rabbinic Judaism (2017) paper
• Tel ʿEton as Biblical ʿEglon (in Faust and Katz, Near Eastern Archaeology 78.2, 2015) paper
• Jerubaal, Jacob, and the Battle for Shechem: A Tradition History (JHS, 2013) paper
• Assumptio Mosis and the Eschatology of Despair (Relegere, 2013) paper
• Timnat Heres and the Origins of the Joshua Tradition (BETL 250, 2010) paper

Edited journal volumes

• The Making of Moses (Hebrew Union College Annual 90, 2019), edited with Mark Leuchter
• Keren 1 (Yeshivat Maharat, 2013), editor

Reference works

• Orthodox Judaism and Bible Criticism (Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 22, 2024)
• Rabbinic Biblical Interpretation (The Hebrew Bible in 5 Minutes, 2023)
• Joshua (Bible Odyssey, 2021)
• Joshua in Reception History (Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible, 2020) paper
• Slavery in the Hebrew Bible (Bible Odyssey, 2019)
• Judges, Rabbinic Literature (Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 14, 2017)
• Joshua, Second Temple (Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 14, 2017)
• Joshua, Rabbinic Literature (Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 14, 2017)
• Fornication (Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 9, 2014)
• Flagellation, Judaism (Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 9, 2014)
• False Witness (Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 8, 2014)

• Why Mikveh Isn't Mentioned in the Torah
• Christmas and Hanukkah Have More in Common Than You Think
• King Saul: The First King of Israel
• Does the Bible Approve of Kings?
• Was Noah Just God's Favorite?
• The Enemy Is Ourselves
• Between Nationalism and Ethics
• Vashti's Bad Rap
• Why Hanukkah Became Such a Big Deal
• The Anxiety of Autumn
• Hope and Curses
• Living as Neighbors
• Law of the King