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His response? A powerful and passionate defense of the Jewish people, a work we know as Against Apion. Now, the title Against Apion is a bit misleading, at least for this first boo...
That’s the situation the historian Josephus found himself in, and it led him to write one of his most passionate works, Against Apion. He begins this work by addressing a man named...
Josephus begins by expressing his astonishment at those who insist on relying solely on Greek sources when seeking information about the most ancient events. Why, he asks, should w...
Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish historian, grappled with this very question when trying to explain why the Jewish people weren't as well-known to the Greeks as, say, the ...
It's easy to imagine them through our own lens, colored by sacred texts and centuries of tradition. But what did the rest of the world see? Well, let’s start with a rather unflatte...
Apion was an Egyptian, and he spun a wild yarn about the Jews' exodus from Egypt. Josephus calls it a "novel account," which is a polite way of saying it was complete fiction. But ...
He's responding to the claims of a writer named Apion, who seems to have a real bone to pick with the Jews of Alexandria. Apion, you see, is going after the Alexandrian Jews, criti...
The historian Josephus, in his work Against Apion, tackles these accusations head-on. Apion, a Graeco-Egyptian intellectual, throws a real zinger: "If the Jews are citizens of Alex...
It comes to us from Apion, a Graeco-Egyptian intellectual who lived in the 1st century CE and who, shall we say, wasn't the biggest fan of the Jewish people. His writings, thankful...
It's more than just a historical account; it's a defense of the Jewish people and their traditions. Josephus wants to set the record straight about Moses. He argues that when our a...
The first-century historian Josephus, in his work Against Apion, offers a fascinating perspective on this very question when describing the Jewish people. He highlights a remarkabl...
It’s a charge that’s been leveled against the Jewish people for centuries. Even Josephus, way back in the first century C.E., tackled this very criticism in his work, Against Apion...
Flavius Josephus, in his work Against Apion, gives us a glimpse into the ancient Jewish legal and moral framework, and it’s He's writing to defend Judaism against its detractors, a...
It’s a question that sits at the heart of Jewish identity, and one that Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish historian, grapples with in his work, Against Apion. He's essentia...
Our guide is Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish historian. In his work Against Apion, he defends Judaism against its detractors. And in doing so, he offers a fascinating, an...
Ten times Pharaoh promised to free the Hebrews. Ten times he broke his word. Each broken promise brought something worse than the last, and according to Josephus, the plagues that ...
Six hundred chariots. Fifty thousand horsemen. Two hundred thousand infantry. That was the army Pharaoh sent racing after the Hebrews barely three days after letting them go—and he...
The Egyptians who chased the Hebrews into the sea did not drown quietly. According to Josephus, the water came crashing back accompanied by storms, rain, thunder, lightning, and th...
Moses struck a rock and a river came pouring out. Not a trickle, not a seep—a full river, bursting from dry stone in the middle of the desert, clear and sweet enough to make an ent...
The earth opened its mouth and swallowed men alive. Not in a myth. Not in a metaphor. According to Josephus, the ground beneath the tents of the rebels cracked apart with a sound l...
A donkey saw an angel before the greatest prophet of the ancient Near East did. That detail alone tells you everything about the story of Balaam. Balak, the king of Moab, was terri...
Joshua inherited an impossible job—replace the greatest prophet in history and lead a nation of former slaves into enemy territory. According to Josephus, he did not hesitate for a...
Three hundred men with clay jars and torches routed an army of over a hundred thousand. That is the story of Gideon, and according to Josephus, God designed it specifically so that...
Samson killed a lion with his bare hands. No weapons. No armor. Just raw, God-given strength unleashed on a beast that charged him on the road to Timnah (Judges 14:6). He was on hi...
Samuel delivered God's command to Saul without ambiguity: destroy the Amalekites completely. Every man, woman, child, and animal—total annihilation as divine punishment for what Am...
A single prophet against four hundred. That was the lineup on Mount Carmel, and Elijah liked his odds. The backstory is bleak. King Ahab had married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, k...
King Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper chamber and was badly injured. Instead of praying to the God of Israel, he sent messengers to consult the Fly, the god of Ekron. ...
Elisha inherited Elijah's mantle and immediately proved he was no lesser prophet. His miracles were stranger, more varied, and sometimes more violent than his master's. A widow of ...
Jehoram, king of Jerusalem, started his reign by murdering all his brothers. Then he married Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, and she taught him to worship foreign gods. It went downhil...
A one-year-old baby survived a massacre that wiped out the entire royal family of Judah. Athaliah, daughter of the infamous Ahab, heard that her brother Joram, her son Ahaziah, and...
In the space of twenty years, the throne of Israel changed hands five times, and almost every transfer was soaked in blood. Zachariah, son of Jeroboam, lasted six months before his...
One hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers died in a single night. That is how God answered Sennacherib, king of Assyria, when he broke his word to Hezekiah and sent an army to ...
Daniel survived the fall of Babylon. When Darius the Mede took the kingdom, he elevated Daniel to the highest office in the empire—one of only three governors ruling over 360 provi...
In the village of Modin, a priest named Mattathias gathered his five sons and told them it was better to die for the laws of their country than to live in disgrace. When the king's...
After routing the Seleucid armies, Judas Maccabeus did not rest. Josephus records that the surrounding nations, alarmed by the sudden revival of Jewish power, attacked Jewish commu...
The Zohar, a foundational text of Kabbalah, isn't always the easiest to understand. That's where commentators like Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag) come in. His intro...
It's a question that still echoes today, isn't it? "What's the difference," Rav Pappa asks, "between those earlier generations, the ones practically swimming in miracles, and us? W...
The Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a key text in the Heikhalot literature – a collection of mystical Jewish writings describing ascents to the divine throne – gives us a...
The Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a mystical text describing ascents through heavenly palaces, gives us a glimpse. And trust me, it's quite a trip! Imagine this: you've...
You're not alone. Our ancestors wrestled with this too, and some of their most beautiful attempts to capture the unimaginable can be found in texts like Heikhalot (the heavenly pal...
The Mitpachat Sefarim, a text offering guidance on interpreting sacred works, certainly thinks so. It describes the Zohar, that foundational book of Jewish mysticism, as possessing...
a "cursed abomination" and a "rejected faction," their tables overflowing with... well, let's just say very unpleasant things. The Zohar, that foundational text of Jewish mysticism...
In Mitpachat Sefarim, a collection of Jewish writings whose name literally means "wrapping of books," we find a raw, unflinching look at a generation seemingly gone astray. The aut...
After all his hard work, "a foolish, silly, and wicked person" – a "son of a worthless one," no less! – criticized his work. The critic, he says, is an "empty-headed fool, all sinn...
Let’s talk about one such word. We’re diving into the Zohar, that cornerstone of Jewish mysticism. Specifically, we're looking at how it interprets Ezekiel's famous vision of the d...
"And establish for us, the work of our hands." That's a powerful line from (Psalm 90:17), isn't it? It speaks to the idea that we can, through our actions, influence not only our o...
There's a powerful verse in Isaiah (55:13) that paints such a vivid picture: “Instead of a briar, a cypress will arise, instead of the nettle, a myrtle will arise. And it will be a...
While there might not be one definitive answer, Jewish mystical thought offers a perspective that's both beautiful and profoundly hopeful. to a passage from Da'at (Knowledge) Tevun...
