Tzaraat, the subject of this week’s portion (and, in part, of last week’s as well), has traditionally been translated as leprosy, a word seemingly derived from the Greek lepra (scales). Contemporary translators, reluctant to use the word, either substitute a euphemism like “skin blanch” (Robert Alter) or retain the Hebrew term (Everett Fox). In a parallel context, the World Health Organization has replaced “leprosy” with “Hansen’s disease.” http://www.jidaily.com/slanderanditscomeuppance/e Read more

A new book about Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948) has set off stormy protests in India for implying that the country’s founding father was bisexual. That’s only the beginning of it. http://www.jidaily.com/gandhiandthejews/e Read more

Many scholars of the Bible and ancient Judaism prefer to focus exclusively on ancient texts and the world that produced them, refraining from engaging with the implications of their work for contemporary religious life. James L. Kugel was never one of those scholars. http://www.jidaily.com/thesickeningquestion/e Read more

The basic problem with Quest for the living God as a work of Catholic theology is that the book does not take the faith of the church as its starting point. http://www.usccb.org/doctrine/statement-quest-for-the-living-god-2011-03-24.pdf Read more

We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html Read more

New York Times But Mr. Almlie, despite a sterling education and years of experience, has faced an obstacle that does not exist in most professions: He is a single pastor, in a field where those doing the hiring overwhelmingly prefer married people and, especially, married men with children. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/us/22pastor.html?_r=3 Read more

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/us/22pastor.html?_r=3 Read more

Far too many analysts seem to confuse the caution the Muslim Brotherhood has displayed thus far with moderation. There is no conflict between being immoderate and acting with discretion. We know very well from historical experience that successful radical movements and organizations often proceed carefully in pursuit of a violent revolutionary aim. http://www.jidaily.com/hGH/e Read more

As debate over this issue rages, the very fact that such questions continue to be raised highlights how little unambiguous evidence there is for reconstructing the life and times of the man believed to be Israel’s most powerful monarch. In the midst of this uncertainty, Steven Weitzman, a professor of Jewish culture and religion at Stanford, has produced an “unauthorized biography” of the king entitled Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom. http://www.jidaily.com/seekingsolomon/e Read more

Jacob Neusner The three monotheist religious traditions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have more in common than in contention. All three believe God is one, unique, concerned with humanity’s condition. Each takes up the narrative of the others’ — Christianity and Islam carrying forward the story begun in the Hebrew scriptures of ancient Israel that define Judaism. http://www.jidaily.com/rPsqh/e Read more