Humash

In honor of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’s 70th birthday, Ari Lamm explores his legacy as a biblical commentator.

David Fried argues that the question of Moses seeing the face of God reveals the tragic choice Moses made in choosing between his own spirituality and that of his people.

Ezra Zuckerman Sivan explains what it means when the Torah says that Moses's burial site was hidden.

There’s a miniature kaf at the beginning of the parashah. As Gabriel Slamovits explains, what the diminished letter says about how Abraham mourned for Sarah fits well with a prominent teaching of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l.

Surprisingly, Bible scholars have not addressed the remarkable intertextual conversation between Jacob's blessings in Genesis 49 and Deborah's song in Judges 5. Michael Bernstein offers his original etymological analysis of the two poetic texts.

Ezra Sivan reexamines the relationship between Rachel and Leah.

Ezra Sivan compares biblical covenants, the all-important circumcision of Abraham and Shabbat

Natan Oliff explores the evolving role of truth throughout Tanakh and later Jewish history.

Leah Sarna argues that this is the Passover to tell the stories of enslaved Jewish women: of the victims of October 7, who were and likely still are subjected to sexual violence, and of the heroic women in the era of the Exodus, who fought to ensure the perpetuation of the Jewish people.

Zohar Atkins presents a new poem on the Akeidah.