Peter J. Leithart

In both Christian and Jewish theology, charity was one of the forms of post-sacrificial sacrifice. Halbertal (On Sacrifice, 40-1) observes that this is not merely a matter of substitution but of fulfillment.Sacrifice, he points out, always exists under the possibility of failure. A worshiper brings . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s a central thesis of John B. Judis’s new Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict that there was a moment when the Arab-Israeli conflict could have been averted, but, under pressure from the Zionist lobby, the great powers, especially the US under . . . . Continue Reading »

The Economist review of The Great Prostate Hoax by Richard Ablin observes that opposition to prostate testing has moved in from the margins.Ablin, who claims to have identified the protein widely associated with prostate cancer, questions whether it gives any useful information. As the review . . . . Continue Reading »

Drawing on Howard Eilberg-Schwartz’s The Savage in Judaism, I argue that the ills of modern theology can be cured only by re-savaging Judaism. And . . . . Continue Reading »

The notion that American Indians are the ten lost tribes of Israel is quaint today, but during the age of exploration, Europeans thought they had plenty of proof.Thomas Thorowgood’s Iewes in America laid out dozens of resemblances between Judaism and Indian customs. As summarized by . . . . Continue Reading »

It is well known that Greeks rarely offered holocaust sacrifices - sacrifices in which the entire animal is offered to the gods by being consumed in the fire. the most common sacrifice was the thysia, which always culminated with a meal.Alongside the rare holocausts were the equally rare . . . . Continue Reading »

When I spot an essay entitled “The Secret Auden,” I get nervous. When it’s in the New York Review of Books, I get nervouser.Edward Mendelson’s recent piece on Auden does refer to Auden’s homosexuality, but the focus of the piece is elsewhere: Auden’s dirty . . . . Continue Reading »

Is the olah, the “whole burnt offering,” a “pure gift, as Moshe Halbertal has it in On Sacrifice (14)?It seems so: The entire animal is burned, no meat remains for the worshiper, there is no evident benefit given in return for the total devotion of an animal to Yahweh,Sed . . . . Continue Reading »

Blood atones. That’s rooted in the created fact that life is in the blood, but in the Bible this doesn’t mean that blood is a kind of magical moral detergent. How then can it atone?It atones because God has “given” it for atonement: “I have given [blood] to you on the . . . . Continue Reading »

Stephen A. Geller offers an intriguing reading of the day of atonement rituals. He points out that, for all the attention given to the scapegoat, one of the unique features of this day’s rites, it is not said that the scapegoat atones for sin. What puts the kafar into Yom Kiuppur is . . . . Continue Reading »