I came across what I think is a nice mishnaic wordplay. The first mishnah is from Berachot 8:6 and the second is from Zevaḥim 12:4 (cf. Eiduyot 2:2). אֵין מְבָרְכִין לֹא עַל הַנֵּר וְלֹא עַל הַבְּשָׂמִים שֶׁל נָכְרִים, וְלֹא עַל הַנֵּר וְלֹא עַל הַבְּשָׂמִים שֶׁל מֵתִים, וְלֹא עַל הַנֵּר וְלֹא עַל הַבְּשָׂמִים שֶׁלִּפְנֵי עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה. [...]
Photos: IAA Shlomo Naeh has a new interpretation of what was thought to be a seal certifying purity that was used in the Temple. According to Naeh, it is actually a token for a sacrifice. Thus, the object was used in Temple worship, but not how Reich and Shukron believe it was, says Naeh. To [...]
Dr. Josh Kulp, author of the The Schechter Haggadah: Art, History and Commentary, prepares a Mishnah Yomit under the auspices of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Mishnah Yomit has just begun a new cycle of learning, starting with Masechet Berachot. You can subscribe to daily emails or read archived ones here. Here’s an example of [...]
One of this year’s new books on rabbinic Judaism is Jordan D. Rosenblum’s Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism. From the publisher’s website: Food often defines societies and even civilizations. Through particular commensality restrictions, groups form distinct identities: those with whom ‘we’ eat (‘us’) and those with whom ‘we’ cannot eat (‘them’). This identity [...]
In a blog post (here) that brings a wide variety of artistic representations of the Last Supper, David Assaf wrote that some people either don’t know, or forget, that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder. לפעמים אנו שוכחים – או שמא פשוט לא יודעים – שהסעודה האחרונה של ישו היתה סעודת ליל הסדר. The [...]
How should קולמוס be pronounced? See this discussion.
The first volume of Rabbi Benny Lau’s popular work on the sages of the Rabbinic period has been translated into English. The Sages: Character, Context, and Creativity is being published by Koren.
(Via Freakonomics.) Corruption = Officials + Pockets: “Nepal’s prime minister was upset that officials at the country’s main airport had gained a reputation for bribe-taking. So the government is trying to put an end to corruption by putting an end to pockets, issuing pocket-less trousers to all its airport staff.” The rabbis of the Mishnah [...]
The Shalom Hartman Institute has an article by Ishay Rosen-Zvi, “Orality, narrative, rhetoric: New directions in Mishnah research.” The article originally appeared in the AJS Review, V. 32 No. 2, November 2008. The appearance in recent years of an impressive series of books, articles, and mainly dissertations on various aspects of the Mishnah, collectively signifies [...]
Balshanut summarizes Philip S. Alexander’s article “How did the Rabbis learn Hebrew?” Hebrew was acquired in the Jewish school system, and schools were widespread in Jewish communities of Palestine from late Second Temple times into the Talmudic period. The elementary level was the Bet Sefer (ages 6 – 9) followed by the Bet Talmud (9-13). [...]
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