Sadducees, The

In the late Second Temple era, the Pharisees upheld the oral law and practiced the customs handed down by tradition, but the Sadducees held that Jews should only adhere to a strict literalist interpolation of the Law of Moses. Professor Martin Goodman exp...

After the Hasmonean victory in the times of Chanukah, there was a period of in-fighting within the Hasmonean dynasty. Much of this conflict broke along ideological lines of Pharisees and Sadducees. Ultimately, this gave rise to the rule of the usurper Her...

The Hasmoneans form a band of guerilla fighters called the Maccabees to defeat the wave of Hellenistic assimilation. After their miraculous victory, however, new troubles arose that would ultimately lead to the destruction of the Second Temple.

The great sages known as the Geonim (lit., “geniuses”) were the successors to the Rabbanan Savorai, who in turn succeeded the Amoraim (about 3980–4260), after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud. Subjects covered include the rise of the Karaite moveme...

"Scholars, be careful with your words. For you may be exiled to a place inhabited by evil elements who will distort your words to suit their negative purposes…Be of the disciples of Aaron: a lover of peace, a pursuer of peace, one who loves the creatures ...

The commandment to count the Omer comes from the verse: "You shall count for yourselves, from the morrow of the Sabbath from the day you bring the Omer as a wave offering seven weeks; they shall be complete" (Leviticus 23:15). The term "Sabbath" in this c...