David Seidenberg, at The Blogs

Dec 24, 2024, 10:16 PM

The Menorah, Part 3: Rabbis vs. Maccabees, Light vs. Fire

collage by author using public domain images

The traditional menorah, or Chanukiyah in modern Hebrew, has eight branches in a line (plus one shamash that is not in that line). The biblical and ecological reasons for this are important and discussed in Part 2, and they...

Dec 10, 2024, 11:25 AM

Featured Post

A bad Penny: The unfair acquittal in Jordan Neely’s death

Jordan Neely's family and supporters after the not guilty verdict for Daniel Penny of charge of negligent murder, video capture from ABC News

When someone says he is hungry, even if he yells it in a scary way, there is just one moral response: an offer of help

Nov 21, 2024, 10:50 AM

Genesis v. genocide: Are you a friend of Abraham or a Joshua Jew?

Destruction of the mosque at Um. al-Hiran, detail (Oren Ziv)

By the time Sarah dies, God has promised to give Abraham all the land that he can see and walk on, not once but four times. And yet, when he goes to bury Sarah, Abraham describes himself as having...

May 21, 2024, 7:52 AM

A second Nakba, and there’s no evading responsibility

Many people, Israelis included, admit that Israel is pursuing its war against Gaza and Hamas in a way that violates tohar ha-neshek, the “purity of arms” doctrine. In theory, tohar ha-neshek requires Israel to calibrate its use of force...

Apr 19, 2024, 11:03 AM

Put hyssop on your seder plate

Hyssop on the seder plate and growing from the wall - composite image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain, author's photo

Did you know that hyssop is a quintessential symbol of Passover? According to our story, every family in Egypt took a bundle of hyssop in hand to daub the lintel and doorposts with blood from the Paschal lamb (Exodus...

Jan 19, 2024, 3:23 PM

Featured Post

What about Moses’ heart?

'The Death of the First-Born of Egypt,' 1838-1839, by Pietro Paolétti. (public domain)

How could the former Egyptian prince announce the last plague in good conscience, without protesting God's plan to kill so many?

Jan 5, 2024, 6:26 PM

Genocide

Gaza is one small step away from a catastrophe like an epidemic that quickly wipes out people vulnerable from lack of food and water. We are coming close to the point where it will take heroic efforts by Israel and...

Dec 28, 2023, 8:05 AM

Genocide?

The world, and the left, have been throwing around the charge of genocide* against Israel for a long time. The volume has become almost deafening during this war. Israel has this very week been bombing a town where it had...

Nov 1, 2023, 5:36 PM

There is a just war to be fought, but is this that war?

Image grab taken from AFPTV video footage shows Palestinians looking for survivors in a crater following a strike in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, on October 31, 2023. (Fadi Alwhidi/AFP)

“Is this the war that I have chosen?” I can imagine the prophet asking. It would be justice for Hamas to be completely eradicated. But how can this happen without killing thousands of innocent Gazans? Without cutting off hospitals and...

Feb 25, 2023, 12:48 AM

A Nation of Priests to all Creation

The vestments of the high priest, described in loving or excruciating detail (depending on how you feel about fashion) in Exodus chapter 28, seem to describe a functionary whose office is all about being glorified. But that's not what...

About Me

Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg is the creator of neohasid.org, author of Kabbalah and Ecology (Cambridge U. Press, 2015), and a scholar of Jewish thought. David is also the Shmita scholar-in-residence at Abundance Farm in Northampton MA. He teaches around the world and also leads astronomy programs. As a liturgist, David is well-known for pieces like the prayer for voting, a new prayer for the land of Israel, and an acclaimed English translation of Eikhah ("Laments"). David also teaches nigunim and is a composer of Jewish music and an avid dancer. The banner image above comes from the Standing Together website -- it means, "Where there is struggle, there is hope."