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Anti-Christian Polemics

I (God) and Not an Angel: The Haggadah Counters Jesus and the Arma Christi

The Haggadah’s insistence that God, without an intermediary, saved the Israelites from Egypt is a veiled retort to the Christian belief that God relied on Jesus as an agent of redemption. Moreover, the midrash replaces the Arma Christi tradition of recounting the weapons Jesus used to save humanity during the Crucifixion with its own distinctively Jewish arsenal of redemption: pestilence, a sword, the Shechinah, the staff, and blood.

Prof.

Steven Weitzman

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Was Haman Hanged, Impaled or Crucified?

The manner in which Haman’s execution was depicted had real world consequences.

Dr.

Abraham J. Berkovitz

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Psalm 2: Is the Messiah the Son of God?

YHWH declares to the Davidic king, “You are my son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7). For the New Testament, this verse is a prooftext for Jesus’s divinity, but what did it mean in its original context, and how did Jewish interpreters understand it?

Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

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Prof.

Amy-Jill Levine

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The Denigration of Esau

Why does Esau in Jewish tradition come to be known as עשו הרשע “Esau the Wicked”? The answer has to do with the history of Judea’s relationship with Esau’s eponymous descendants, the Edomites, and the connection Jews made between them, Rome, and Christianity. The negative view of Esau is expressed nowhere more forcefully than in Rashi’s commentary.

Dr.

Barry Dov Walfish

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Did God Originally Intend the World to Be Vegetarian?

In the creation story, God tells humans to eat plants. Only after the flood, does God permit them to eat animals. Interpreters have understood this to mean that vegetarianism was God’s original plan for humanity. Gersonides found the claim that God changed His mind scandalous, but this is more about countering Christian claims than the simple meaning of the text.

Prof. Rabbi

Marty Lockshin

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Did Moses Become Celibate?

The Israelite men are commanded to separate from their wives before the revelation at Sinai. The rabbis learn from this that Moses permanently separated from his wife (Num 12), to be available to speak with God at all times. Joseph ibn Kaspi (14th c.), however, claims that this distorts the plain meaning of the text and that celibacy is an affront to Jewish values.

Prof. Rabbi

Marty Lockshin

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Does Rashi’s Torah Commentary Respond to Christianity?

Moses promises that if Israel forsakes the covenant, God will destroy them permanently (Deut 4:25-26). Drawing on a midrash, Rashi explains that God exiled Israel early to avoid having to wipe them out; thus, God never actualized this threat. Considering Rashi’s responses to Christian ideas in other biblical texts, Rashi's comment on Deut 4:25 may well be an apologetic effort to prove that God’s covenant with the Jews remains intact.

Dr.

Yedida Eisenstat

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Esau the Ancestor of Rome

In the Bible, Esau is the ancestor of the Edomites who live on Mount Seir, southwest of Judah. So how did the rabbis come to associate Esau and Edom with Rome? Two main factors are at work here: Christianity and Herod.

Dr.

Malka Z. Simkovich

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Maoz Tzur and the “End of Christianity”

Maʿoz Tzur is an intense anti-Christian text reflecting the mood and experience of Ashkenazi Jews during the Crusades, when dozens of Jewish communities were slaughtered in the name of the cross.

Prof.

Yitzhak Y. Melamed

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Searching for the Meaning of the Passover Sacrifice

To counter Christian exegetes who saw the paschal lamb as symbolizing Jesus, medieval rabbinic commentators offered new rationales for the details of this ritual.

Prof. Rabbi

Marty Lockshin

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Can a False Prophet Perform Miracles?

According to Deuteronomy, a false prophet who has no message from God, and advocates worshiping other gods, can still successfully perform miracles and predict the future.

Prof. Rabbi

Marty Lockshin

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Does the Torah Differentiate Between Murder and Killing?

What does the root רצח actually mean: to kill or to murder? A look at Rashbam’s attempted (and failed?) solution highlights the ethical ramifications of Bible translation.

Prof. Rabbi

Marty Lockshin

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Abraham as the Great (Un)Circumciser

A Surprising Midrashic Portrait of Abraham

Dr.

Malka Z. Simkovich

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When God Punishes Israel: What Will the Gentiles Say?

Will the gentiles really say that because Israel “forsook the covenant that YHWH, God of their fathers, made with them when He freed them from the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 29:24) that YHWH is punishing them?

Prof. Rabbi

Marty Lockshin

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Nittel Nacht: An Inverted Christmas with Toledot Yeshu

How Jews responded to the celebration of Jesus’ birth by creating a cynical version of Christmas Eve lampooning him.

Shai Alleson-Gerberg

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The Torah Is Not an Allegory

In a polemical response to Christian and Jewish allegorical interpretation of the Torah’s laws, Bekhor Shor writes that just as God speaks to Moses “clearly and without riddles” (Num 12:8), so too the Torah is clear and means what it says, and should not be interpreted allegorically.

Prof. Rabbi

Shaye J. D. Cohen

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