Are you a "Jessica"? If you are, your name says that you're a woman so beautiful people can't stop looking at you. You won't find this in any dictionary or website, or even Wikipedia (which offers a different explanation for the name). I learn it from Shakespeare and from the Talmud, two … [Read more...]
Metatron – the Mutant, the Mystic (Part 2)
(This is a continuation of last week's post.) "Look at the Youth who comes forth from behind the throne to greet you! Do not prostrate yourself before him, even though his crown is like his King's crown, his shoes like his King's shoes, his robe like his King's robe." These words, taken from … [Read more...]
Extraterrestrial Life – A View From 1797 (Part 2)
Last week I posted part 1 of my translation of the chapter on extraterrestrial life in Rabbi Pinchas Elijah Hurwitz's 1797 book Sefer ha-Breet ("Book of the Covenant"). What follows is part 2. I've talked about Hurwitz and his book in last week's post. I'm intrigued by his quotation--I can't … [Read more...]
Extraterrestrial Life – A View From 1797 (Part 1)
I was 13 years old. I'd just become a UFOlogist; I was excited by the idea that ancient documents like the Bible might speak of flying saucers. I asked my grandfather, who was something of a Hebrew scholar, what the Talmud--the great book of post-Biblical Judaism, dating from the early centuries … [Read more...]
Jewish Faust, Heretic Rabbi – The Strange Case of Elisha ben Abuya
His name was Elisha ben ("son of") Abuya. He’s been called “the Jewish Faust”; and when the 19th-century writer Max Letteris translated Goethe's Faust into Hebrew, he gave his adaptation the title "Ben Abuya." The ancient rabbis of the Talmud, who spoke with fascinated horror of their colleague … [Read more...]
