All in History

How Religious Were The Avos?: The Pre-Sinaitic Torah

Avi Borgen
Machshavah, History

It is well known that the Torah was given to the Jews in the desert at Har Sinai. This, however, begs the question: to what extent, if at all, did the Torah exist before it was given at Sinai? What did pre-Sinaitic Judaism look like? Did the Avos, living before the giving of the Torah, live by the guidelines that we adhere to today? Better yet, could they have possibly followed a code of law that was not to be given for another couple hundred years?...

Justifying The Murder Of A Nation?: A Study Of The Morality Of Shimon And Levi

Moshe Bochner
Machshavah, History

After the Allied bombing of the German city of Dresden at the end of World War II, resulting in the death of an estimated 25,000 civilians and destroying much of the city, there was much controversy as to the moral justification and legal basis for the attacks. Ever ready for sensational propaganda, the German government seized the opportunity, exaggerating the number of civilian deaths nearly tenfold, while using the attacks as a pretext for abandoning previously signed agreements on humanitarian rights, and claiming that the city of Dresden had no war industries and was solely a cultural center...

The Missing Passion Of Chanukah

Devir Kahan
Chanukah, History, Holidays

There is something curiously missing from our telling of the Chanukah story. Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski points out that in the telling of the story of Purim — the other Rabbinically enacted holiday — there is a clear cause and effect; a continuum is very clearly identifiable. In the story of Purim we sinned by partaking in the extravagant feasting and by bowing down to idols. These sins were what allowed the evil forces to gain a foothold against us. This much is clear from Chazal. When we, in turn, fasted, we were led to salvation. There was sin, repentance, salvation — all connected along a clear line...

The Historicity Of The Miracle Of Oil

Devir Kahan
Chanukah, History, Holidays

Did the Chanukah miracle of a small jug of oil lasting for eight days really happen? Or was it a Talmudic invention? While the flagrant nature of these questions is acknowledged, there has been much recent academic and historic literature on the subject, and there does not seem to be a single compendium of all the various information, along with an intellectually honest analysis of the subject and its various conclusions and perspectives. That is what I hope this will be...

Fowl Play: Is Turkey Kosher?

R. Jason Allen
Halacha, History, Holidays

The Torah, in Parshas Shmini, when informing us of the kashrus status of animals, lists specific types of birds that are not kosher. Ultimately, through derivation of the various “l’mineihu” words found in that section, Chazal (Chullin 63b, Rambam, Ma’achalos Assuros 1:14) identify 24 classes of birds that are not kosher, each one with many species. Any bird that is not from one of these 24 classes is kosher (Rashi, Chullin 61a d”h oaf, Shulchan Aruch YD 82:1). The problem is, however, that we can no longer identify the non-kosher birds that are mentioned...