Tanakh

Mollie Fish reviews Mitchell First’s new book, From Eden to Exodus: A Journey into Hebrew Words in Bereshit and Shemot.

Gavriel Lakser offers a new approach to the problem of evil based on the beginning of Genesis.

Is Jewish stubbornness a stereotype or a source of pride? In the Torah, it appears as a criticism, but also as a veiled praise for the people of Israel’s unique power of commitment. Zach Truboff highlights this strength in an application of the words of the Piaseczner Rebbe to our current moment of crisis.

The Mei Ha-Shiloah’s statements on predetermination pose a theological challenge to foundational Jewish doctrines. In an analysis weaving together several Torah narratives and Izhbitzer commentaries, Reuven Boshnack proposes an empowering interpretation of the Mei Ha-Shiloah.

David Schwartz explores thematic similarities between the Hanukkah miracle and Pharaoh’s dreams.

The stories of Hagar and Ishmael's banishment and subsequent rescue by the angel and that of a cast-out baby Moses on the Nile rescued by Pharaoh's daughter are seemingly dissimilar, but this close reading by David Curwin argues that their strong parallels have a lesson to teach about the importance of being active and not succumbing to passivity.

Tamar Weissman shows how the Druze minority in Israel remarkably resemble the biblical Kenites.

Aton Holzer offers a novel interpretation of Isaiah 53 based on current events in Israel.

Zvi Grumet suggests that when read in sequence, the kinot of R. Elazar Ha-Kalir—often seen as the ones most difficult to understand—offer a powerful theological narrative from despair to hope.

In this letter to the editor, David E.S. Stein, the project manager and revising translator of the JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition, responds to the review by Martin Lockshin.