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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.

By JEREMY SHARON – October 20, 2021

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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“Only the rich could afford toilets.”

Archaeologists find 2,700-year-old toilet in luxurious palace in Jerusalem

The extraordinary find sheds light on life under the kings of Judah: “Only the rich could afford toilets.”

By ROSSELLA TERCATIN  OCTOBER 5, 2021

 

The rare stone toilet is 2700 years old. Most likely used by one of the dignitaries of Jerusalem. (photo credit: YOLI SCHWARTZ/IAA)

The rare stone toilet is 2700 years old. Most likely used by one of the dignitaries of Jerusalem.
(photo credit: YOLI SCHWARTZ/IAA)

A privatetoilet dating back

to some 2,700-years was uncovered in a luxurious palace in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.

“A private toilet cubicle was very rare in antiquity, and only a few were found to date, most of them in the City of David,” said archaeologist Yaakov Billig, director of the excavation on behalf of the IAA. “In fact, only the rich could afford toilets. A thousand years later, the Mishnah and the Talmud raised various criteria that defined a rich person, and Rabbi Yossi suggested that to be rich is ‘to have the toilet next to his table’.” (more…)

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Are the Taliban descendants of Israel?

 

Pashtun practices include circumcision on the eighth day and refraining from mixing meat and milk — Is there a connection to ancient Hebrews?

 By MICHAEL FREUND –  SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

 

TALIBAN FORCES patrol in front of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2 (photo credit: STRINGER/ REUTERS)

TALIBAN FORCES patrol in front of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2
(photo credit: STRINGER/ REUTERS)
With the fall of Kabul into the hands of the Taliban just shy of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the world’s attention has once again turned to Afghanistan.
Tucked away in south-central Asia, with unsavory neighbors such as Iran to the west and Pakistan to the east, the landlocked country, which once served as a base of operations for al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, is as beguiling as it is complex.
And yet amid its turbulent past, in which it has served as a flashpoint for the British Empire, the Soviet Union and now the United States, Afghanistan has long been home to one of the more intriguing unsolved mysteries of Jewish history: the fate of some of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. (more…)

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Does obsession with disproportionality compromise responsible warfare?

If Israelis are unable to perceive the paradigm shift in discourse, they will never be able to challenge it.

Samson and Delilah by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (photo credit: DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

Samson and Delilah by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni
(photo credit: DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

To some, power is all that matters. It is not simply something to be obtained, but a lens through which to see the world. During the recent  Gaza conflict , such a worldview began to dominate discussions of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israel has power. And to some, this is wrong. (more…)

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