by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 7, 2021 | Blog, DI
The Torah states three times that seventy people from the house of Jacob went down into Egypt; Genesis 46:27, Exodus 1:1,5, and Deuteronomy 10:22. Genesis specifies that Jacob’s household when he descended into Egypt numbered 70. This includes the two sons of Joseph,...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 6, 2021 | Blog, DI
The Hanukkah story is clearly one of conflict, pitting the underdog Judeans against the powerful Seleucids and King Antiochus IV. The Judeans were also up against their Hellenized brethren who actively sought to end the Temple service and the observance of the Torah’s...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 5, 2021 | Blog, DI
The modern city of Modi’in was established in the 1990s about 20 miles northwest of Jerusalem and about halfway between Israel’s capital and Tel Aviv. Modi’in was not mentioned in the Bible or in the Mishna so little is known about its history. The Book of Maccabees...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 3, 2021 | Blog, DI
The Book of Maccabees is a collection of four volumes that recount the history of the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, and the Seleucid dynasty. They do not appear in the Jewish canon of the Tanakh (i.e....
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 2, 2021 | Blog, DI
Hanukkah is a historical holiday that is not mentioned in the Bible. Its name means ‘dedication,’ and it commemorates the eight-day rededication of the Second Temple by the Hasmoneans that took place at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire...
