Starvation and Salvation: Yom Kippur

A little Yom Kippur video from your friends at PunkTorah.

Creation Accounts of the Ancient Near East: Influences on Ancient Israel’s Cosmogonies

By Lacy LeBlanc The differences between the creation accounts in Genesis and those from other areas of the Ancient Near East are striking. There is no mythology in Genesis.1 There is no epic battle in Genesis.2 The accounts in Genesis do not perfectly match any one creation story from Israel’s ancient neighbors. In fact, the [...]

A Kingdom of Priests and an Open Source Nation

By Leon Adato, originally posted here I met Aaron through his blog – Open Source Judaism – and was intrigued by his focus on ideas about ideas. I also appreciated his direct style of writing, his interest in showing Torah in an amusing, if not pop-culturally-accessible, light (such as the lolcat bible:), and the fact [...]

We’re All Zocher Shabbos

By Patrick Aleph There’s a great debate between the Shabbat observant about whether to be Shomer Shabbos (guard the Sabbath) or Zocher Shabbos (remember the Sabbath). In a generalized nutshell, Shomer Shabbos Jews believe in observing the law for the law’s sake (or a literal interpretation). This means that the following activities would “break” Shabbat: [...]