Babylon Berlin is famous for its attention to detail — did it get its Jewish story right?
The popular German series has religious Jews, but does it know how they practiced?
The popular German series has religious Jews, but does it know how they practiced?
There's little reason to believe the events recounted in the Megillah of Esther actually happened
New evidence unearthed in the City of David further verifies the biblical account of an actual Babylonian conquest of First Temple-period Jerusalem, according to the Times of Israel. Led by Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologist Dr. Joe Uziel, the excavation team discovered a row of 2,600-year-old rooms, all of which were covered with layers of…
A new exhibition of ancient clay tablets discovered in modern-day Iraq is shedding light for the first time on the daily life of Jews exiled to Babylon some 2,500 years ago. The exhibition is based on more than 100 cuneiform tablets, each no bigger than an adult’s palm, that detail transactions and contracts between Judeans…
One day, when I was in my early 20s and teaching Torah to religious newbies in Jerusalem, I felt the bedrock of belief shudder beneath me. There’s a reason the sages wrote that the air of Jerusalem makes one wise. I could feel the vibe everywhere. I loved how a cosmetician might share a Torah…
Forward reader Ady Manory writes: “I’ve been wondering about the origin of the Hebrew name of the constellation Orion, k’sil. Is it Babylonian? Is it related to the Hebrew month of Kislev? I’d love to find out if the name was a Jewish way of disparaging the accepted mythology of the times.” Mr. Manory is…
‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” As often as we read these words, which we do every Simchat Torah when beginning the…
The story goes that a certain heathen approached the Jewish sage Shammai and asked to be converted, on the condition that he is taught the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Indignant at receiving such a ludicrous request, Shammai chased the man away. Undeterred, the heathen then approached the sage Hillel with the same…
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