Dr. Rabbi Zvi Ron

Dr. Rabbi Zvi Ron

Dr. Rabbi Zvi Ron is an educator living in Neve Daniel, Israel. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Theology from Spertus University and semikhah (rabbinic ordination) from the Israeli chief rabbinate. He is editor of the Jewish Bible Quarterly and has published over sixty scholarly articles on the Bible, Pseudepigrapha, Midrash, and Jewish customs in Tradition, Hakirah, Zutot, Sinai, ha-Ma'ayan, the Review of Rabbinic Judaism, the Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy, the Jewish Bible Quarterly and others. He is the author of ספר קטן וגדול about all the big and small letters in the Bible and ספר עיקר חסר about variant spellings of biblical words.

Last Updated: April 17, 2026

Articles by Author

Purimfest 1946: The Nuremberg Trials and the Ten Sons of Haman

Purimfest 1946: The Nuremberg Trials and the Ten Sons of Haman

The small letters, tav, shin, and zayin in the list of Haman’s ten sons (Esther 9), with the combined numerical value of 707, are seen as a “prophetic” code hinting to the future hanging of the ten Nazis convicted at the Nuremberg trials in the year 5707, which Julius Streicher declared as “Purimfest 1946” before he was hanged. What is the origin of these small letters?
Spilling Wine While Reciting the Plagues to Diminish Our Joy?

Spilling Wine While Reciting the Plagues to Diminish Our Joy?

The popular Jewish custom to remove drops of wine while listing the plagues goes back to the Middle Ages, but the ubiquitous explanation that we do this out of sadness for what happened to the Egyptians does not. When did this explanation develop and how did it become so dominant?