The Origins and Meaning of Shabbat

March 24 2025

Last Saturday’s Torah reading of Vayakhel begins with an injunction to observe the Sabbath, one of the several times the holy day is mentioned in the book of Exodus alone. The commandment to observe a day of rest, explains Jon D. Levenson in conversation with Helen Bond and David Roos, was originally a distinctive feature of Judaism, with few if any parallels in other ancient cultures. Levenson also discusses various theories about Shabbat’s origins, the New Testament’s approach to the Sabbath observance, and the meaning of what he terms “Israel’s day of light and joy.” (Audio, 57 minutes.)

Read more at Biblical Time Machine

More about: ancient Judaism, Hebrew Bible, Shabbat

Mahmoud Abbas Condemns Hamas While It’s Down

April 25 2025

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.

Read more at New York Sun

More about: Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority