Moses and Aaron Misuse an Asherah to Draw Water from the Rock
An offense against YHWH that explains the severe punishment of their exclusion from the promised land.
Prof. Raanan Eichler
Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Raanan Eichler is an Associate Professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed fellowships at Harvard University and Tel Aviv University. He is the author of The Ark and the Cherubim (Mohr Siebeck, 2021) and many academic articles.
Last Updated: November 10, 2026
Articles by Author
The Torah’s Three Explanations for Why Moses Does Not Enter the Land
The biblical authors knew that Moses did not lead the Israelites into the promised land, but the question of why preoccupied them.
Aaron’s Flowering Staff: A Priestly Asherah?
The story of Aaron’s staff reads like an etiological tale, explaining a holy object in the Temple. The description of the object as a stylized tree suggests a connection with the asherah, a ritual object forbidden by Deuteronomy.
God Abandons the Garden of Eden and Dwells with the Cherubim
Four Aramaic targumim (ancient translations) have God, and not just cherubim, taking up residence east of the garden. This is based on a slightly different vocalization of the Hebrew text, which is likely a more original reading than our current biblical text (MT).
Acquiring Ruth with the Land: A Text-Critical Solution for Ruth 4:5
The mistaken exchange of the letter gimel for a vav corrupted the meaning of a key verse in Ruth.
The Poles of the Ark and Tutankhamun’s Chest
The description of what is to be done with the ark’s carrying poles (בַּדִּים) seems to differ between Exodus ch. 25 and Numbers 4. Medieval Jewish commentators offered many different solutions to this contradiction, but the best answer lies in what we learn from the construction of ancient Egyptian portable chests.
What Kind of Creatures Are the Cherubim?
Winged children, winged adults, griffins, or sphinxes? A survey of the iconographic and archaeological evidence.
Gender Equality at Creation
A methodologically rigorous reading of the account of the Woman's creation reveals a fundamentally egalitarian view of the sexes that is both nuanced and psychologically sensitive.
The Zer
What exactly is the זֵר (zer), mentioned ten times in the furnishing of the tabernacle? A test case for the importance of archaeology in understanding Torah.
