Bible

'The Prince of Persia': History, faith, and a warning the West ignored - opinion

Evangelical Bible believers see the uprising in Iran as a battle between principalities and powers similar to a battle that happened in Persia during Daniel’s day in the Bible.

Farah Pahlavi, former Empress of Iran, pictured with the author.
US President Donald Trump as Pharaoh, in an Iranian caricature

Pharaoh, Nimrod, Trump: Tasnim’s headline writers went ancient this week

Chief rabbis of Jerusalem, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Arye Stern

Rabbis after Google: Jewish leadership must be reimagined - opinion

A mosaic of King David (illustartive)

Parashat Vayechi: King David's lesson in leadership


Vayigash after October 7: Tears, envy, and consolation pedagogy - opinion

What Joseph teaches Israeli society today

 Rembrandt - Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife

This week in Jewish history: Yearning for Zion

A highly abridged weekly version of Dust & Stars – Today in Jewish History.

PORTRAIT OF Jewish poet Naftali Herz Imber, from The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1920.

Parashat Vayishlack: I lack nothing

A significant expression of their differing worldviews appears in their attitudes toward wealth – a perspective that influences all aspects of life.

 Money and a calculator

500-year-old Bible map inadvertently shaped modern ideas of national borders, study asserts

Study author, University of Cambridge Professor Nathan MacDonald, described this map's inclusion as "simultaneously one of publishing’s greatest failures and triumphs.”

Lucas Cranach the Elder’s map of the Holy Land in Christopher Froschauer’s Old Testament (Zürich, 1525) in The Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge

Parashat Vayetze: When a nation forgets its source

If Israel, like Jacob, holds fast to its mission – even in exile, even in danger, even in darkness – then the promise of Hosea still stands.

An illustrative image of a nest and egg in human hands.

Parashat Toldot: A call for impassioned Jewish renewal

If the parasha is a saga of inheritance, of blessings fought over and destinies forged, then the haftarah is its echo, reminding us that a spiritual legacy must not merely be received, but upheld.

 SCRIBES FINISH writing a Torah scroll.

The biblical echo of ‘I will go’ - and the women moving Israel beyond October 7 - opinion

Jewish women today echo the values of Biblical foremothers, maintaining courage and faith in times of crisis.

Torah scroll 521

Parashat Chayei Sarah: Politics, power, perils of ambition

Politics, the haftarah reminds us, is not inherently corrupt. It becomes corrupt when it forgets that leadership is service, not self-promotion.

 SCRIBES FINISH writing a Torah scroll.

Parashat Chayei Sara: ‘Ger v’toshav’ – unfinished belonging 

Until our people are gathered and the land is restored, we remain wanderers yearning for wholeness.

PATIENCE REQUIRED...

Parashat Chayei Sarah: All are equally good

Sarah’s greatest achievement was her ability to live calmly and serenely

A LAMP burned continuously – symbolizing unceasing light and joy.

Jewish concepts of 'afterlife' may be recent adaptations, study finds

In the Hebrew Bible, the term Sheol is the shadowy abode of the dead. It is often depicted as “down below,” silent, and without active praise of God.

The authors describe a shift “from the almost ‘materialistic’ idea of the early Israeli society to the belief in life beyond the grave and the resurrection of the dead…"