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Ten of them served as governors in various provinces, according to Legends of the Jews. But their fate? Not so enviable. Ten of them died along with their father, and the other ten...
She wasn't done. This time, she wanted her story, the story of her courage and her people’s deliverance, enshrined within the Holy Scriptures. But the sages hesitated. Big time. Ad...
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...
Today, we're diving into one such path, guided by the words of Josephus, a first-century Romano-Jewish historian. He's responding to some pretty harsh claims made by an Egyptian pr...
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...
Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, takes on Apion's wild accusations in his work Against Apion, and it’s a doozy. Apion, in his eagerness to smear the Jewish people...
It’s a question worth asking, because the answer might surprise you. : those who create systems of order, who value living under laws, they're often seen as better, more virtuous p...
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 historian Flavius Josephus, writing in his treatise Against Apion, thought he had the answer, at least when it came to the Jewish people. And it all came down to a specific app...
Most people, as Josephus points out in his treatise Against Apion, are pretty clueless about their own legal systems. They bumble along, accidentally break a rule, and only then do...
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...
Josephus, a fascinating figure from the first century – a Jewish historian who lived through the Roman conquest of Judea – grappled with this very question in his writings. In his ...
Josephus, in his work Against Apion, gives us a glimpse into the Jewish understanding of this concept, and it’s surprisingly profound. Josephus argues that there should be one cent...
In his work Against Apion, Josephus defends Jewish customs and beliefs against Hellenistic slanders. Here, he outlines the traditional Jewish view of marriage, starting with a clea...
He argues that the strength of a community isn't found in fleeting celebrations or momentary pleasures, but in the consistent, dedicated education of its children. for a second. Jo...
Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish historian, gives us a fascinating glimpse into just that when describing Jewish law in his work, Against Apion. He points out something cr...
Maybe we should look back, way back, to some ancient wisdom. Flavius Josephus, a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, in his work Against Apion, gives us a glimpse into the values ...
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...
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...
Josephus, a Jewish historian writing in the 1st century CE, grappled with this very question in his work, Against Apion. He was defending Judaism against its detractors, and one of...
The writer Josephus, in his work Against Apion, makes a pretty bold claim. He argues that Jewish laws and customs have not only been admired but actively imitated by people across ...
The mountain was on fire, the sky had turned black, and every person in the camp was convinced they were about to die. That was the scene at Mount Sinai when God spoke the Ten Comm...
There was a goat that carried the sins of an entire nation into the wilderness and was never seen again. Every year on Yom Kippur—the tenth day of the seventh month—the Israelites ...
Moses spent his final days doing what he had done since Sinai: giving laws. But these were different. These were the laws of a man who knew he would never cross the Jordan. The mil...
King Josiah was eight years old when he inherited the throne of Judah. His grandfather Manasseh had been the worst king in the nation's history—a man who slaughtered prophets until...
The Temple was rebuilt, but the real crisis was internal. Josephus records that when the returnees from Babylon laid the foundation, the Samaritans—descendants of foreigners whom A...
After Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE, his empire shattered into warring kingdoms. Ptolemy, son of Lagus, seized Egypt—and Jerusalem along with it. Josephus records that Ptolem...
Jewish mysticism gives us a fascinating, mind-bending concept: Adam Kadmon. Adam Kadmon, literally "primordial man," isn't just some ancient dude. According to kabbalistic traditio...
It might sound like a silly question, but Jewish tradition actually has some fascinating, even awe-inspiring, things to say about God's "robe of glory." Some mystical texts describ...
They were so well hidden that they couldn't be revealed to just anyone. So, what did God do? This is where it gets really interesting. God decided to bring all those treasures toge...
In Jewish mysticism, this presence is often understood through the concept of the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence). But here's something fascinating: it's not just one Shekhinah, bu...
One powerful answer lies in the concept of the Shekhinah (שְׁכִינָה). The Shekhinah, often described as the divine feminine presence, the immanent glory of God, has a fascinating a...
Jewish tradition has a powerful way of understanding that feeling: it's the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, in exile with us. Think of the Shekhinah as the feminine aspect of God, ...
That, according to some powerful Jewish mystical traditions, is how the universe came to be. Not a slow burn, not a gradual unfolding, but a single, instantaneous burst of divine e...
This brings us to a little story, a fragment really, told by the great Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. You probably know him from his famous Sippurei Ma’asiyot, his collection of thirte...
Maybe that's not a bug, but a feature of the entire universe. Is anything truly ever finished? Rabbi Simcha Bunam of Parsischa, a Hasidic master from the late 18th and early 19th c...
The story of Rabbi Ishmael offers just such a glimpse, though it's woven with threads of immense suffering and ultimate acceptance. This story, "Rabbi Ishmael's Ascent," isn't just...
We often think of heaven as a visual paradise, shimmering light and breathtaking vistas. But what about the auditory experience? Jewish tradition paints a picture of a heaven const...
Jewish tradition paints a vivid picture of just such a place: a heavenly otzar, a treasury. But this isn't just any vault filled with gold; it's the Treasury of Merits, a repositor...
What they've imagined is According to tradition, within Paradise – also known as Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden, paradise) – lie not just one, but six palaces, each a home for the so...
It's so much more than just a physical act; it’s a profound moment steeped in tradition, faith, and ancient promises. And at the heart of it all stands a powerful, unexpected figur...
The Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, reportedly did just that. The story goes that on Rosh ha-Shanah – the Jewish New Year, a day of judgment and profound spiritual signifi...
The Jewish mystical tradition, particularly within Hasidism, grapples with this idea constantly, often personifying temptation in the figure of Lilith. There's a tale told about Ra...
Some say they're locked away in a book, a very special book called the Book of Raziel. Now, this isn't your ordinary paperback. According to tradition, this book was revealed to Ad...
That’s the idea behind a powerful myth found in the Zohar (l:4b-5a), the central text of Kabbalah. It speaks of God constantly creating new heavens and a new earth. But where does ...
One of my favorites involves nothing less than the Torah itself, envisioned as a radiant bride. Imagine this: the sixth day of Creation is wrapping up. God surveys everything He ha...
Jewish tradition suggests that might be truer than you think, especially when it comes to the relationship between us, the Torah, and the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence). The Shekh...
