A complaint of mistreatment by a superior, written in Hebrew on an ostracon (a piece of broken pottery used to write on) from Metsad Hashaviahu (between Tel Aviv and Ashdod), from the last quarter of the seventh century BCE. This letter may not be simply an appeal for help, but rather a legal complaint, since it is reminiscent of the laws and practices in Exodus 22:25, Deuteronomy 24:10–13, and Amos 2:8, though the circumstances seem different. This is the only extrabiblical legal document found in Israel from before the Babylonian exile.
The common names of plants used by different nations and languages were not coined by chance alone. If we examine the origin of these names, we find they are based on ancient legend and that the…
The Jewish cemetery of Altona is made up of two separate cemeteries, one Sephardic (established in 1611 and later expanded several times) and one Ashkenazic (1616, also later expanded). In the…
Let me sing for my beloved
A song of my lover about his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard
On a fruitful hill.
He broke the ground, cleared it of stones,
And planted it with choice vines.
He…