REJOICE O BARREN ONE In the fifth haftarah Isaiah (54:1-10) – Roni Aqarah, the prophet likens Zion to a barren woman who becomes a mother of many children: “Rejoice, O barren one, you that did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child: for more are the […]
This week is the fourth in the series of seven weeks between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashannah, where the haftarot are designed to comfort the Jewish people: the Shiva de-Nehemta, the Seven Haftarot of Consolation. This week, when the Torah reading is Parshat Shoftim, the haftarah begins, “Anokhi Anokhi Hu menahem” – I, indeed I […]
This haftarah is the third prophecy in the cycle of seven Haftarot of Consolation, read sequentially during the seven Sabbaths that follow Tisha B’Av. The previous week, God has reassured disconsolate Zion that He will remember her. In this week’s consolation, He adds the assurances of repopulation, piety, and peace. That is, though Zion is […]
The haftarah of Parshat Eikev begins as follows: Zion says, My Lord has forsaken me, My Lord has forgotten me, Can a woman forget her baby Or disown the child of her womb? Though she might forget, I never could forget you. See I have engraved you On the palms of My hands, Your walls […]
The Sabbath immediately following Tisha B’Av is known as Shabbat Nahamu, the Sabbath of Consolation. The name is taken from Isaiah 40:1, the haftarah read on that Shabbat: ‘Comfort, oh comfort My people,’ says your Lord Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, And declare to her That her term of service is over, That her iniquity is […]
Most haftarot of the year were selected because they share a thematic connection with each Torah portion (parashah) to which they are appended. By contrast, those haftarot read during the summer weeks, from the seventeenth of Tammuz until the end of the Jewish calendar year, were chosen primarily on the basis of their link to […]
À la mode, Babatha’s document registering her En-Gedi date orchards was drawn up according to the prevalent Roman legal customs of the early second century C.E. Like the majority of her other documents, her land registration is written in Greek, the official language of government and business used in the Roman courts, not in Aramaic, […]
The entrances to the Cave of Letters (the two openings slightly right of center in the photo) lie 300 feet below the desert plateau and 650 above the valley floor. Forty years ago, Yigael Yadin explored the cave and found a trove of items that he associated with warriors of Bar-Kokhba, the leader of the […]
Lead weight inscribed with the name “Simeon son of Kosiba…Nasi (prince) of Israel.” discovered near Beth Guvrin, Judean Shephelah.