In conversation with Dru Johnson and Matthew Lynch, Jon D. Levenson addresses some widespread misperceptions about death in the Hebrew Bible, most importantly the idea that death is seen as final and irreversible and that notions of resurrection and the afterlife found in both Christianity and in rabbinic Judaism are wholly alien to it. Levenson also argues that a host of “debunking ideologies” have left contemporary academic biblical scholarship in a sorry state—and that the talmudic rabbis would have preferred footnotes to endnotes. (Audio, 51 minutes.) https://onscript.study/podcast-player/1183/jon-levenson-resurrection-and-the-restoration-of-israel.mp3

Last week, Russia negotiated a ceasefire between the Syrian government and rebel forces in the city of Daraa, where the initial protests that sparked the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began. The agreement ended a 75-day assault on the city, located near the country’s southwestern border, by Russian, Iranian, and Syrian forces. Jonathan Spyer explains the significance of these events: