The story begins with creation, which progresses through several stages, culminating in the creation of humans. The humans commit wrongful acts, and eventually God sends a flood to destroy the earth. A remnant—Noah, his family, and the animals in the ark—is saved. The flood is an undoing of creation, and after it, life begins anew. In response to human hubris, God divides humanity into different nations, speaking different languages, and scatters them over the whole earth.
I besieged and captured Samaria. I took as spoil 27,290 people who live there; I organized (a contingent of) fifty of their chariots and I instructed the rest of them in correct conduct. I appointed…
The death of an artist is never a random event, but a last act of creation that seems to illuminate the whole of his life under a powerful ray of light. [ . . . ] Why are people surprised when poets…
This illustration of an armillary sphere is from a treatise on astronomy, Sefer mareh ha-ofanim (The Appearance of the Heavenly Beings), by Solomon ben Abraham Avigdor. The treatise was mostly a…