His book is so laughably bad, its claims so easily and demonstrably false, the whole thing so silly, that debunking takes on a rather gleeful quality -- which is, I think, only fitting. The best cure for "The Da Vinci Code" is, in the end, hearty gales of well-informed laughter.

Unlocking secrets of the past
By JEREMY WIMPFHEIMER (Jerusalem Post)

Jerusalem Talmud
Schottenstein Edition Talmud Yerushalmi - Tractate Berachos vol. 1
Mesorah Publications
$34.99

For centuries, folios of the Jerusalem Talmud languished in the backs of libraries acquiring dust and being opened only by leading rabbinic sages and Talmudic scholars. Mesorah Publications, whose English and Hebrew translations and elucidations of the Babylonian Talmud have been credited with enabling Talmud study among the masses, is now embarking on a similar effort for a more complex text - the Jerusalem Talmud.

[...]

Indeed, for Talmudists and students all over the world, one cannot overestimate the impact the Artscroll series has had upon Talmudic scholarship. The completion of the English elucidation of the Babylonian Talmud in 2005 resulted in more than 70,000 people around the world relying on Artscroll for their Talmud Study.

[...]

ADL withdraws call for halting construction of J'lem museum
By Haaretz Service

The Anti-Defamation League has withdrawn its call for halting construction on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, saying the Wiesenthal Center was taking "adequate steps to deal respectfully" with Muslim graves discovered at the building site.

[...]

Kabbala then and now
Jeremy Adler
Daniel C. Matt
THE ZOHAR
Pritzker edition
Volume One
500pp. 0 80474747 4.
Volume Two
496pp. 0 804 74868 3
Stanford University Press. $49.95 each; distributed in the UK by Eurospan. £29.95 each.
Arthur Green
A GUIDE TO THE ZOHAR
191pp. Stanford University Press. Paperback, $15.95.
0 8047 4908 6
Moshe Idel
KABBALAH AND EROS
371pp. Yale University Press. £25 (US $45).
0 300 10832 X

This evocative, light-filled imagery and the vision of a heavenly throne in which it culminates gave rise to the most ancient form of Jewish mysticism, so-called merkabah or “throne” mysticism. The doctrine was apparently established by the period of the Second Temple, and the key documents concerning this journey of the soul stem from the period before the expansion of Islam: as in related traditions, upon performing sundry ascetic rites the mystic approaches the Divinity, in this case after a journey through His “seven Heavens” into the “seven palaces”, until he finally witnesses the manifestation of His glory on the “throne”. Unlike the literal truths in the Pentateuch, a text like Ezekiel that enshrines this mystery demands to be approached symbolically, a mode which could hardly differ more sharply from that required by the law. Thus, whereas the Talmudists interpret the Bible rationally, expounding the laws in a continuous dialectic by adducing other parts of the Bible as evidence, the mystics read the sacred Book the other way round: they begin with the visionary mode in Ezekiel and treat the earlier Books as symbolic. This enables them to search behind the literal truth.

Desert fathers in the limelight
The Third Symposium on Coptic Studies that took place at the White Monastery of St Shenoude west of Sohag early this month cast light on the life and times of an extraordinary Upper Egyptian monk, says Jill Kamil

You'll be moved by its magnificence

RICHARD MASCHAL
rmaschal@charlotteobserver.com

What got me was the inkwell.

I was in "The Dead Sea Scrolls" exhibit at Discovery Place but not yet at the Scroll Gallery, drinking in the artifacts, photographs and text panels interpreting these ancient biblical fragments, how they were discovered and what they mean.

And here was this pottery piece from Jerusalem, an inkwell. Like the scrolls, it is about 2,000 years old and similar to inkwells from Qumran, the Dead Sea community where the scrolls were found about 60 years ago.

A spark jumped between me and this small artifact. I could see evidence of the human hand -- the one that made its nicely curved handle and the one that used it to ink a reed pen and perhaps copy Holy Scripture.

[...]

3:18 pm | Dead Sea Scrolls inspire 2 concerts (Charlotte Observer)

"Sing unto him a new song," Psalm 33 says. Carolina Voices will obey the biblical command by premiering two choral pieces by Charlotte composers in a tribute to the Dead Sea Scrolls. The concerts March 3 and 5 will focus on the Psalms -- one of the biblical books most represented in the scrolls, subject of a just-opened show at Discovery Place. ...

“A simple Google search would have revealed to Academy Award-Winning director Ron Howard the myriad of factual errors in The Da Vinci Code. For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls are identified in the novel as Jewish documents, not Christian, and Brown cites the Vatican eleven centuries before it even existed,” said Matthew Pinto, president of Ascension Press, which is spearheading this outreach.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomes the decision of the Supreme Court of Israel to appoint former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar as the mediator for a 30-day period to help facilitate a resolution regarding the remains found on the construction site of the Center For Human Dignity - Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem.

ARCHAEOLOGY:MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES PAPER ON MOSAIC PROTECTION
(AGI) - Ragusa, Feb. 22 - Mediterranean countries have written a "paper" on the protection of ancient mosaics, which characterise a common cultural heritage. The document will be drawn up in Modica (Ragusa), where the international conference has begun this morning under the aegis of Unesco and will finish tomorrow. Delegations are present from Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Israel, Jordan, Malta, France, Cyprus, and the Palestinian Authority and aims to reinforce cooperation in the field. ...

'Whoever insults the one true Church deserves to be killed.' (News report)

David Aaronovitch

“EUROPE MUST LEARN to live in and with the world, not to dominate it, nor to assume it is superior or more virtuous. Any continent that has inflicted such brutality on the world over a period of 200 years has not too much to be proud of, and much to be modest and humble about.” Martin Jacques, The Guardian, on the cartoons row.

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe . . .

From a Reuters report, Rome, some time around now

The Vatican has protested in “the strongest possible terms” against the publication in paperback of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Cardinal Loopi, of the Office of the Defence of the Faith, condemned the book for defaming Catholicism and, in its suggestion that Jesus Christ was married, of heresy. “We demand that the book be destroyed and that the author be punished,” said Loopi, “otherwise we cannot be held responsible for how Catholics throughout the world may react.”

And finally, the good news . . .

From hiding, somewhere in Pakistan, Dan Brown apologises to the Judaeo-Christian world for the publication of The Da Vinci Code, promises to donate the proceeds from all his books to any charity nominated for the purpose by Opus Dei and undertakes to become a monk in a silent order at a monastery atop a high mountain in the Apennines.

James Robinson, a retired professor of Coptic studies at Claremont Graduate University and general editor of the English edition of the Nag Hammadi Library, vouched for the document's authenticity based on his experience in trying to purchase the codex as early as 1983.

"I don't know of any scholar who thinks this is fake," said Robinson, who is not involved in the National Geographic project.

Although Robinson has never seen the manuscript firsthand, he arranged a meeting in 1983 between Stephen Emmel, a Coptic scholar at the University of Muenster in Germany, and John Pedrios, a Greek dealer who was negotiating the sale of the manuscript.

In a report filed after the meeting, Emmel said he was able to authenticate the codex as a genuine fourth- or fifth-century manuscript. But he said the 30-minute meeting ran too short for him to detect whether it contained the gospel.

Reached by phone in Cairo, Emmel confirmed his report but declined to say whether the manuscript he saw decades ago is the forthcoming gospel.

"I can say that the thought never crossed my mind that it was anything but a genuine Coptic papyrus codex from the fourth or fifth century," he said.

Learn more about Dead Sea Scrolls

(Charlotte Observer)

Tickets will be sold at the door tonight for a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls -- the sacred objects explored in the exhibit that drew 9,200 people to Discovery Place in its first three days.

[...]

Ancient Aweigh
The discovery of two well-preserved anchors on the receding shoreline of the Dead Sea is just the beginning of several archaeological possibilities, a main one being to find if a boat was once attached to either of them. “It is wishful thinking, but I hope to find what it was connected to,” Gideon Hadas, archaeologist and discoverer of the anchors, told israel today.

[...]

'The Jezebel Letters'

Monday, February 20, 2006 (The Register-Mail, IL)

MONMOUTH - Eleanor Ferris Beach, a lecturer in Monmouth College's department of philosophy and religious studies, has written a book on Jezebel, the much-maligned Israelite queen.

Beach's "The Jezebel Letters" combines her biblical scholarship with a fictionalized first-person account of the biblical character. In the process, she transforms the stereotype of the conniving Jezebel into a more historically-based portrayal of a powerful, literate woman.

[...]

Unrolling The Dead Sea Scrolls

By Michael Futch
Staff writer

If you think the Rolling Stones are old, just consider the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Those writings pre-date Jesus of Nazareth.

They are the oldest known manuscripts of any books of the Bible. Most of the manuscripts are made of leather or papyrus, with some written as early as 200 B.C. That’s 1,000 years older than the earliest, existing Biblical texts we had before the discovery of the scrolls between 1947 and 1956 in caves on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea.

[...]

A Kiss for Judas
A long-lost 2nd century "Gospel" may portray Jesus' betrayer as closer to a hero than a heel
By DAVID VAN BIEMA

Posted Sunday, Feb. 19, 2006
It could be a passion story as co-written by Mick (Sympathy for the Devil) Jagger and The Matrix's mess-with-your-metaphysics Wachowski brothers: Judas Iscariot, vilified in the Gospels as Jesus' great betrayer, was not merely an Apostle--he was perhaps Christ's closest confidant. Technically speaking, he did drop a dime on Jesus. But there were extenuating circumstances, some having to do with the belief that the God of the Old Testament was not the ultimate God, that this world is not what it seems and ... well, for a full explanation, you'll just have to see the movie.

Er, rather, see the 31-page papyrus tractate.

[Mario] Roberty [director of the Maecenas Foundation, which apparently owns the manuscript] is cagier regarding its content, to which Geographic owns rights. Photos of six pages supposedly from the tractate were sent several years ago to Charles Hedrick, a scholar with Missouri State University who has attempted to translate and analyze them. But Roberty claims Hedrick's efforts are flawed in that the first four pages actually hail from a different tract bound in the same leather cover.

ADL: Pause work on Museum of Tolerance, site of Muslim graves
By Haaretz Service

The Anti-Defamation League Sunday urged a temporary cessation in the construction of Museum of Tolerance, pending resolution of a dispute over Muslim graves recently discovered at the building site in central Jerusalem.

"We encourage a temporary cessation of construction until the issue is resolved in a respectful way acceptable to all parties. To do less would weaken the foundation upon which a museum of tolerance stands."

[...]

The goal of DailyHebrew.com is to encourage daily reading of sacred Hebrew texts.


Introduction

After devoting long hours to learning the basics of Hebrew grammar most students, pastors and teachers fail to continue reading the Hebrew Bible. Eventually, their knowledge atrophies for lack of use. The purpose of DailyHebrew.com is to remedy this ubiquitous problem by providing the reader a manageable daily Hebrew reading (4-8 verses) along with lexical and syntactical assistance.

DailyHebrew.com is committed to helping students at all levels read biblical Hebrew. The blog is arranged so that a reader can spend a few minutes a day or week reading Hebrew texts. Beginners should start with the first verse or two of each translation, Intermediate learners should attempt the entire passage using the vocabulary listed by line (words which occur less than 50 times in the MT are listed in parentheses with their BDB reference page) and Advanced scholars will be able to translate using minimal vocabulary helps.

Typically, students spend the majority of their time memorizing vocabulary, reading grammars and studying paradigms. Though these pursuits are well intended and needed initially, one will not learn Hebrew until committing to a regular reading regiment. But, you say, 4-8 verses a day is not very much reading. Actually, averaging 8 verses a day one can read the entire Torah (~6000 verses) in only two years and the entire Hebrew Bible in ten years.

Scrolls awe, amaze visitors
Power of ancient texts unites diverse group on exhibit's opening day
KEN GARFIELD
Religion Editor (Charlotte Observer)

Proof of the power of the Dead Sea Scrolls to bring people together came Friday on opening day of the much-anticipated exhibit at Discovery Place.

Among the first to admire the sacred artifacts were 41 senior citizens from Plantation Estates in Matthews, a family from Charlotte and a Nigerian doctor who lives in Huntersville -- a diverse group united for this one morning at least by their faith, fascination and feelings.

[...]

Ruling expected on Tolerance Museum construction
By ELANA BROWNSTEIN AND AMIR MIZROCH

The High Court of Justice is slated to hand down its decision in the coming days on whether the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) may continue building its planned Center for Human Dignity, Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem complex following public protests and two petitions by Israeli Arabs.

Wednesday, the court heard the petitions by the Al Aqsa Company for the Development of Waqf (Muslim religious trust) sites and by the Nazareth-based Karameh Human Rights Organization, representing three prominent Jerusalem families who say their ancestors are among those buried in the ancient cemetery.

The $150 million complex off Jerusalem's Rehov Hillel, designed by prominent American architect Frank Gehry, would include a museum, conference and education centers, a library and a theater, all dedicated to promoting tolerance in Israel and abroad, the SWC says. If work continues as planned the museum is expected to open by 2008.

The SWC said it had been told by the government and the Jerusalem Municipality five years ago that the threedunam plot was not defined as a cemetery, but as "public open space" and gave it the necessary permits to build on the site. It said the government based its decision on a 1964 Sharia Religious Court [the highest Muslim court in Israel] ruling that allegedly nullified the sanctity of the graveyard and permitted use of the land.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean and founder of SWC, quoted the ruling as declaring "The cemetery's sanctity has ceased to exist in it and it is permitted to do whatever is permitted in any other land which was never a cemetery." The 1964 document was included in the SWC response to the petition.

The petitioners, however, have rejected the government's position. "We adhere to our legitimate right to protect the Ma'amam Allah graveyard and all other Muslim cemeteries," said Irkima al-Sabri, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza Strip.

According to Karameh's lawyer Durgham Saif, "You cannot build a museum of tolerance on the bones of other people. It is immoral and illegal."

[...]

'Gospel' is stirring up a debate about Judas

By Stacy Meichtry
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

The first translation of an ancient, self-proclaimed "Gospel of Judas" will be published in late April, bringing to light what some scholars believe are the writings of an early Christian sect suppressed for supporting Jesus Christ's infamous betrayer.

If authentic, the manuscript could add to the understanding of Gnosticism, an unorthodox Christian theology denounced by the early church. The Roman Catholic Church is aware of the manuscript, which a Vatican historian calls "religious fantasy."

[...]

Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, the president of the Vatican's Committee for Historical Science, called it "a product of religious fantasy."

In an interview, he said that the manuscript would not have any impact on church teaching.

"We welcome the (manuscript) like we welcome the critical study of any text of ancient literature," Brandmuller said.

He said that despite some reports to the contrary, the drive to improve Judas' reputation does not have the support of the Vatican.

"There is no campaign, no movement for the rehabilitation of the traitor of Jesus," Brandmuller said.

[...]