Was there a coup in Egypt during the biblical Exodus?

Pharaoh dying in the firstborn plague would lead to the immediate crowning that night of a new Pharaoh. This is further supported by the word “rose”: “And Pharaoh rose up in the night.”

By GOL KALEV  Published: MAY 5, 2023

 

 

 MODERN-DAY ‘coup’: Egyptian pro-democracy supporters gather in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011, during the Arab Spring. (photo credit: Mohamed Abd El-Ghany/File/Reuters)

MODERN-DAY ‘coup’: Egyptian pro-democracy supporters gather in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011, during the Arab Spring.
(photo credit: Mohamed Abd El-Ghany/File/Reuters)

How many Pharaohs were there between the time of the Exodus and the time the Hebrews crossed the sea?

The popular read of the story told in the Book of Exodus is about one Pharaoh who changes his policy a number of times due to God’s miracles.

But could there have been more than one?

The Pharaoh with whom Moses and Aharon engaged during the first nine plagues makes clear in their last reported bilateral meeting that this is the last time they will see each other. Moses agrees: “And Pharaoh said unto him: ‘Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in the day thou see my face thou shalt die. And Moses said: ‘Thou hast spoken well; I will see thy face again no more.” (more…)

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“The Israel We Knew” is not gone …

From Daniel Gordis from Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis

So it is with some hesitation that I respond, however indirectly, to Friedman’s recent Op-Ed in the NYT, in which he argued, post Israel’s elections, that “the Israel we knew is gone.” I’ve got no interest in joining the “jump on Tom Friedman fray.” That said, I don’t think it’s gone at all.
Neither, apparently, does Dennis Ross:

Dennis Ross@AmbDennisRoss
Not sure Israel has changed. The Bibi-led bloc won fewer votes.Just as the Democrats can win the popular vote and lose in the electoral college,in Israel a party must win 3.25 percent of the vote to be in the Knesset. Fall just short, as 2 left parties did, lose all those votes.
Nov 5, 2022 (more…)

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DNA analysis solves mystery of bodies found at bottom of medieval well

By Katie Hunt, CNN  Tue August 30, 2022

Construction workers breaking ground in 2004 on a shopping mall in Norwich, England, found 17 bodies at the bottom of a 800-year-old well. The identity of the remains of the six adults and 11 children and why they ended up in the medieval well had long vexed archaeologists. Unlike other mass burials where skeletons are uniformly arranged, the bodies were oddly positioned and mixed — likely caused by being thrown head first shortly after their deaths. (more…)

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Two Torahs? Origins of the Karaite schism explored in new book

Lasker’s book offers an extremely well-researched introduction to the relatively unknown and un-researched branch of Jewish history that includes Karaite Jewry and its texts, commentaries and records

By HADASSAH FAUR  Published: MAY 28, 2022

 TOURISTS VISIT a Karaite prayer house (‘kenesa’) in the ancient town of Chufut-Kale near Bakhchisaray, Crimea. (photo credit: MAXIM ZMEYEV/REUTERS)

TOURISTS VISIT a Karaite prayer house (‘kenesa’) in the ancient town of Chufut-Kale near Bakhchisaray, Crimea.

(photo credit: MAXIM ZMEYEV/REUTERS) (more…)

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The failed Western Wall compromise has led to religious cooperation

Spiritual leaders have been establishing communities in Israel that don’t fit into any traditional Jewish category.

By ZVIKA KLEIN  Updated: MAY 20, 2022

 

 

 A FAMILY prays at the section of the Kotel designated for non-Orthodox worship. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

A FAMILY prays at the section of the Kotel designated for non-Orthodox worship.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

 

It felt surreal: A group of rabbis – male and female, from diverse backgrounds, including Orthodox – met this week at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens in Jerusalem. The weather was perfect for an outside gathering, the first of its kind. (more…)

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The Samaritan connection to Mount Gerizim restoration, conservation

Early Hellenistic period dwelling opened to visitors • Samaritan community has mixed feelings about park on its holy mountain

By JUDITH SUDILOVSKY Published: MAY 14, 2022

 

 THE REMAINS OF an entire ancient Samaritan dwelling from the early Hellenistic period recently opened to the public by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority on Mount Gerizim are in surprisingly good shape. (photo credit: Noam Ych’ye/Natanel Elimelech)

THE REMAINS OF an entire ancient Samaritan dwelling from the early Hellenistic period recently opened to the public by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority on Mount Gerizim are in surprisingly good shape.
(photo credit: Noam Ych’ye/Natanel Elimelech)

Rising some 886 meters above sea level, Mount Gerizim commands a majestic view over modern-day Nablus – biblical Shechem – in the valley below, and Mount Ebal in the north. (more…)

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The hametz conflict requires common sense, not theocracy

While Israel is a Jewish state, it is not a theocracy, meaning the state cannot force its citizens to follow Jewish law.

JPOST EDITORIAL   Published: APRIL 7, 2022

Hametz is covered at a store in Israel (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Hametz is covered at a store in Israel – (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

The political crisis triggered on Wednesday when Yamina MK and coalition whip Idit Silman bolted from the government is not about the leavened products that biblical law prohibits Jews from eating during the seven days of Passover.

True, Silman framed her move as a concern over the Jewish nature of the state that she feels is compromised by a public display of hametz on the Festival of Matzot, but this was just an excuse for something Silman has obviously been thinking about and planning for some time.
(more…)

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Is there new evidence of Jewish Temple treasures in the Vatican?

Pretend for a moment that the Vatican has in its possession some sacred and precious relics that were originally in the Herodian Jewish Temple located in Jerusalem 1,950 years ago.

If you were the pope living in the 14th century and could verify this fact, would you not ask yourself how indeed such Jewish artifacts had come to your residence in the first place?

After some digging around (no pun intended), you would have found that your new Vatican residence was actually built over sections of Caesar’s Palace – the Vatican, including St. Peter’s Basilica, was constructed over Emperor Vespasian’s Roman palace approximately 200 years after the sacking of Rome in 455 AD. Indeed, there are excavations going on there right now, even as you read this magazine. (more…)

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The Holocaust: Who are the missing million?

The Holocaust: Who are the missing million?

By Raffi Berg – BBC News, Jerusalem

Faces on section of wall in Hall of Names

Two-thirds of European Jewry was murdered by the Nazis

Giselle Cycowicz (born Friedman) remembers her father, Wolf, as a warm, kind and religious man. “He was a scholar,” she says, “he always had a book open, studying Talmud [compendium of Jewish law], but he was also a businessman and he looked after his family.”

Before the war, the Friedmans lived a happy, comfortable life in Khust, a Czechoslovak town with a large Jewish population on the fringes of Hungary. All that changed after 1939, (more…)

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Temple Mount: Will Jerusalem’s holiest site become religious tug-of-war?

As Jewish visitation to the Temple Mount increases in numbers and scope, Muslim concern grows.

THE WRITER captures Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount during a July visit. (photo credit: JEREMY SHARON)

THE WRITER captures Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount during a July visit.
(photo credit: JEREMY SHARON)

On Yom Kippur of 5728, or 1967 of the Common Era, an event took place the likes of which had not been seen for hundreds of years. (more…)

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