Hillel Mali

Hillel Mali

Dr.

Dr. Hillel Mali is a Senior Lecturer in the Bible Department of Bar Ilan University where he did his Ph.D. on Descriptions of the Temple in the Mishnah: History, Redaction and Meaning (2018). His work analyzes the basic categories of worship in the Bible and their development in post-Biblical literature. Previously a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow, Mali is a member of the joint Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Heidelberg University research group “Thinking Rite: Towards Talmudo Mīmāṃsā,” the founder and director of the Omek Hashetach Project for pre-military leadership academies; the founding editor of Beit Hayotzer, a periodical for Jerusalem tour guides; and the founder and director of a Jerusalem ethnic-music ensemble “Nigun Yerushalmi,” for which he is the lead flutist.

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Pesach in Egypt ⇄ Pesach in Jerusalem

Pesach in Egypt ⇄ Pesach in Jerusalem

Exodus instructs each family in Egypt to slaughter a paschal lamb and eat it at home, while Deuteronomy commands a community ritual, to take place at the central worship location, i.e., the Jerusalem Temple. These two conceptions cross-pollinate, first in the Torah and then in its early reception: Jubilees requires everyone to eat in the Temple as their home; the Mishnah requires everyone to slaughter together in three cohorts; most surprisingly, R. Eliezer claims that, in theory, all of Israel can share one paschal animal.