Solar Eclipses in Tanakh/ch and the Ancient Near East
A thread on the natural supernatural, belief, and the human condition. But first a brief note on the nature of miracles. sorry this is repetitive from previous threads but it is necessary to explain the schools of thought here to fully grasp the ideas here.

One of the interesting things about Rosh Hashanah, is that from a pure vaccuum, the pasuk describing it is at first glance, completely alien to Rosh Hashanah as we view it theologically these days. דַּבֵּ֛ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לֵאמֹ֑ר בַּחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜י בְּאֶחָ֣ד לַחֹ֗דֶשׁ יִהְיֶ֤ה לָכֶם֙ שַׁבָּת֔וֹן זִכְר֥וֹן תְּרוּעָ֖ה מִקְרָא־קֹֽדֶשׁ׃
Vayikra 23:24
Thats it, no Rosh Hashanah, no Hayom Harat Olam, there isn't even an explanation of the specifics of the day

Eliyahu (Elijah) in I Kings 19. If you read the subtext, its one of the sadder sections of Tanach.
A thread:

https://twitter.com/eigenrobot/status/1695641071538102783

Before I begin the thread, many if not all of these ideas are found in Rav Elchanan Samet's book Elijah: The Lonely Zealot which is a must read giving incredible insight into understanding the personality of Eliyahu and the entirety of the Eliyahu Narrative.

A History of the Events leading up to the Destruction of the First Temple: A Thread Before getting into the details an important point re discussing the complexity of history and the study of Tanach. Tanach is unbothered by the question of free-will vs. foreknowledge humans have free will and Hashem has foreknowledge its a duality. This is the language of Tanach

A bit truncated, a bit messy but hey at least its done. Thread for Parshat Korach,
special thanks to @FayeH321 and @DomesticatedThe for the encouragement to publish it despite it not being perfect. hope you find it meaningful or in the very least: coherently formulated (readable)

https://twitter.com/yoshiyahureform/status/1672019629651238913

The ideas that are missing here. There is more of a thread running through the ideas by using some concepts from the Rav's Shiur on Parshat Korach and the dialectic of Kedusha.
Additionally taking some ideas from the Rav's essay: Majesty and Humility
traditiononline.org/majesty-and-hu…

Parshat Korach thread: largely based on ideas from Rabbi Sacks.
The age old question, are we all equally holy? There is a thought provoking idea which Rav Soloveitchik introduces regarding a distinction in individual vs. communal holiness 1/
yutorah.org/lectures/lectu… I hope to delve into that concept a bit more in a potential follow up thread.
What instead I would like to discuss is how the argument of equality in equivocation of our roles and duties is one that is continuously repeating as it strikes a nerve, we find it compelling 2/

Before I do my other thread, just a quick and fun historical one, this below is an artifact titled "a Ram in the Thicket" found in the Royal cemetary of Ur (also called the great death pit of Ur) by one of my favorite non-fictional archaelogists, Sir Leonard Woolley. He called it that because he said it reminded him of the story of Akedah and Abraham finding the Ram. The artifact dates back to the First Dynasty of Ur (3rd millenium BCE) turns out thats how goats eat. Made out of Lapis Lazuli, Gold and Copper.

@chayykay @DomesticatedThe The science really didn't get anything wrong, it was the scientists who all decided to abandon rational thinking for partisan hackery.
Not every scientist, just the ones in charge of overarching policy able to make a difference @chayykay @DomesticatedThe Here are the major things scientists were wrong about
1) first and foremost was the school closures, it was very clear early on this was age striated and kids were largely unaffected. there was no reason to close schools

She's completely wrong here. Yes there is an issue about privacy concerns and data harvesting more generally across social media, but that is a separate issue compared to TikTok which is harvesting data for a hostile foreign entity.

https://twitter.com/Annie_Wu_22/status/1639663800591740930

This is about national security the popularity of the app is not a case against banning its a case in favor. National security supercedes other issues. You can separately address data mining by social media companies at a later point but TikTok is an entirely different animal

@chayykay No not at all. I was trying to find my original tweets on the subject but it turns out I tweeted those on the same day I had left twitter/deleted my account so all my tweets from that day are gone.
The basic idea is reformation not reform. Meaning a restoration of norms @chayykay Basically reinvigoration of old principles and philosophies with changes to ensure enforcement.
I similarly call what Ezra-Nechemiah did as a reform. They made Takkanot to ensure stricter adherence and then built a bunch of walls that represent the community where the norms

To answer this question, yes it is an abuse of power, and yes the person did it anyways (they are too nice)
Now that I have a snippet of my notes I can answer where that depiction of an Israelite came from or if it even is a depiction of an israelite

https://twitter.com/yoshiyahureform/status/1615840424081375234

So to answer it is not from the Mernapteh Stele it is however from the Mernepteh victory depictions at his funerary temple in Karnak (thankfully feeling like less of an idiot now)

Interesting article but for the petes sake how did we get from the tentative statement that the Lachish Ivory Comb may contain Canaanite and dates back to the Bronze age to definitive statements. I have yet to see an explanation for why the comb was found in the Iron Age II layer

https://twitter.com/mosaicmag/status/1615876730635403270

I have no qualms with it dating back that far, if there is some proof besides for linguistic analysis of a single letter. The carbon dating was inconclusive, thats fine, I just would like an explanation for why it was in the Iron Age II layer.

Question: Which plague is the most severe? do the plagues increase in severity? Besides for Makkat Bekhorot (Plague of the Firstborn) which plague do you think was the most severe? Rav Elchanan Samet approaches this with a general principle: In any given sequence of 10 in Tanakh the 7th one is next most significant (not the 9th). 7 days of creation. What you therefore need to extrapolate is what makes it significant.

Looks really good. Mixed feelings about another Order 66 scene, it feels like those are shown once a year now.

https://twitter.com/themandalorian/status/1615178017957089281

Also anyone else getting major the Mandalorian is a metaphor for Jews vibes? A lot of this trailer could be reformatted as a Shabbos Drasha by just changing a few words here and there

The funniest aspect about calling them the 10 plagues is that only one of them is technically ever called a plague, the last one Makkat Bekhorot. Everything else is called Otot UMoftim: Signs and wonders. The question brought up is if they are signs and wonders then shouldn't other things count as signs and wonders? Like Aharons staff turning into a crocodile
Rav Yitzchak Reggio (the YaShaR, Shadal’s Boss at Rabbinical School in Padua) suggests this

This all explains the linguistic depth to the concept of hardening Pharaohs heart. Now to the question of free will. There are 3 major schools of interpretation of how Hashem gives free will but also hardens someone heart thus seemingly removing free will

https://twitter.com/yoshiyahureform/status/1615045840384524294

Schoo of Thought 1) Abarbanel and Rambam: God suspends free will in order to punish the guilty. An aspect of divine punishment is loss of free will God doesn’t punish Pharaoh for hardening his heart. hardening is his punishment and requires him to bear the brunt for his actions

Hardening of Pharaohs heart is one of the more interesting discussions within Tanakh because it really brings up the question of free will. One interesting facet though is that it could have a double meaning to judge someone guilty. The Greenfield Papyrus and Papyrus of Ani both/ describe the process of how the dead are judged in the afterlife, which is their heart is cut out by Anubis and weighed on a scale by Osiris against the goddess of judgement Maat (depicted as an ostrich feather).

This is a good piece in theory, but in practice the legislature has abdicated its duty, the executive is constantly overreaching and multiple presidents on both sides have actively stated what theyre doing is unconstitutional and then do it anyways.
nationalreview.com/corner/growing… Yes there is a serious consequence of overreliance on the Judiciary, but when all other branches refuse to do their jobs the Judiciary doesn't really have an option.