North Carolinians Welcome New Torah
Some 300 community members and guests turned out for a special Torah dedication ceremony, parade and family fun fair at Chabad in Greensboro, NC. The ceremony marked the completion of a brand new Torah scroll that will now find its home in the shul at the Chabad center, which is run by Rabbi Yosef and […]
Qumram National Park
Qumram National Park, where the seven Dead Sea scrolls were found was built on the eighth century BCE until the destruction of the temple in 586 BCE. When the site was called Secaca, it was then abandoned in the second century BCE. During the Arabic period the site was named Qumran from an Arabic word […]
Steps to Becoming a Jewish Scribe
The job of a Jewish Scribe or Sofer is to transcribe Torah scrolls and other religious writings. Becoming a Sofer is not an easy job and requires a lot of extensive training and great skills. A Jewish Scribe must be a God-fearing person and should be faithful to the holiness of the Torah. A Sofer […]
Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Search for the Secret of Qumranby Norman Golb This book contains a startling new theory of the provenance and meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Golb argues that the Scrolls were almost certainly written not by a fringe group in Qumran, but by Jews in Jerusalem who smuggled them out of that city just […]
Behind the Garden Walls
by Artist Myra Mandel The picture ‘Behind the Garden Walls’ is part of a series of paintings of gates and windows in Safed, painted in watercolor and acrylic on paper. The gate shows a glimpse of a walled garden. This painting is a collage of ancient and new. The writing on the fragments of parchment […]
In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language
Joel M. Hoffman Publisher: NYU Press Joel Hoffman lectures and teaches classes on biblical and rabbinic Hebrew and translation at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He is the head translator for Jewish Lights’ seven-volume prayerbook and commentary series, My People’s Prayerbook. He lives in the NYC area. Hebrew as a language is just over […]
A History of the Hebrew Language
Angel Saenz-Badillos, Shelomo Morag (translator) Publisher: Cambridge University A History of the Hebrew Language is a comprehensive description of Hebrew from its Semitic origins and the earliest settlement of the Israelite tribes in Canaan to the present day. Professor Sá enz-Badillos sets Hebrew in the context of the Northwest Semitic languages and examines the origins […]