Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.

Rabbi Israel Drazin

Dr. Israel Drazin served for 31 years in the US military and attained the rank of Brigadier General. He has a PhD in Judaic Studies and a Masters Degree in psychology and a Masters Degree in Jewish Literature. He is an attorney and a rabbi.

He developed the legal strategy that saved the military chaplaincies when its constitutionality was attacked in court, and received the Legion of Merit for his service.

He was the scholar who recognized that the Aramaic translation Targum Onkelos took hundreds of items from the Tannaitic Midrashim, which were edited around 400 CE; therefore, the Targum must have been composed after that date, a period much later than had been widely accepted.

He is the author of more than 50 books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, and a series of books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, a history of the legal case he handled, and dozens of books on the Bible.

His works, available on Amazon, include:
*A Rational Approach to Judaism and Torah Commentary
*Can’t Start Passover Without the Bread (Children’s Literature) ***
*For God and Country: The History of a Constitutional Challenge to the Army Chaplaincy
*Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets
*Maimonides: Reason Above All
*Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind
*Mysteries of Judaism (Maimonides and Rational)
*Mysteries of Judaism II: How the Rabbis and Others Changed Judaism
*Nachmanides: An Unusual Thinker
*Onkelos on the Torah Understanding the Bible Text (5 Volume Set)**
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 1: Genesis) **
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 2: Exodus) **
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 3: Leviticus) **
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 4: Numbers) **
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 5: Deuteronomy) **
*Sailing on Moti’s Ark on Sukkoth (Children’s Literature) ***
*Stories that Teach the Truth: Ecclesiastes, Tobit, Susanna, and Other Stories.
*Studies in Onkelos (Hebrew edition)
*Targum Onkelos to Exodus [2]: An English Translation of the Text with Analysis and Commentary
*Targum Onkelos to Leviticus [3]: An English Translation of the Text with Analysis and Commentary
*Targum Onkelos to Numbers [4]: An English Translation of the Text with Analysis and Commentary
Targum Onkelos to Deuteronomy [5]: An English Translation of the Text with Analysis and Commentary
*The Authentic King Solomon
*The Tragedies of King David
*Understanding Onkelos
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Five Books of Moses (Maimonides and Rational)
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Hosea
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Jonah and Amos
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Joshua
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Judges
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Ruth, Esther, Judith
*What’s Beyond the Biblical Text? **
*Who Really Was the Biblical David?
*Who Was the Biblical Prophet Samuel?

** Co-Authored with Stanley Wagner
** Co-Authored with Leba Lieder

Book Review: ‘The Plot to Save America’

The book contains two main plots. Most startling and fascinating is the idea that followers of President Trump were able to turn the 2020 election results so that President Trump won a second four year term and changed America into a kind of Nazi country, doing things to the president’s enemies that equaled if not exceeded what the Nazis did. [Rabbi Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., USA

Bible Leaves So Many Quesions Unanswered about Dinah

Aside from the terrible tale of the kidnapping and apparent rape of Jacob’s daughter Dinah in the biblical book Genesis, we know very little about Dinah other than the usual obscurities which the Torah does not explain, which prompt us to think of what is happening and why, some of which we list below. This tale also raises the question of the Bible’s view of women. [Rabbi Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

An Unusual But Sensible Interpretation of the Cain and Abel Tale

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Many people are under the impression that the brothers Cain and Abel built an altar with Cain burning fruit of the ground, and Abel offering the firstlings of his flock and that God only accepted Abel’s offering. Actually, there is no mention of an altar or

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

An Orthodox Jewish Woman Professor Explains the New Testament

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin   BOCA RATON, Florida — Amy-Jill Levine tells us why Jesus’s teachings in the New Testament, can be seen to be sensible and acceptable to people of all religions, even Orthodox Jews, even Jewish women like her who attends an Orthodox synagogue and sits behind a segregated mechitza (separation) for

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.

Centuries of Despicable Behavior Against Jews

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Dr. Emily Michelson, senior lecturer in history at the University of St. Andrews, describes the over two and a half centuries when the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, Italy, forced Rome’s Jews to attend weekly hostile sermons. The Church’s aim was to convert the Jews to

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History

Written in 1845, ‘Narrative of the Life of an American Slave’ Remains a Must-Read in 2022

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin   BOCA RATON, Florida — “Narrative of the Life of an American Slave” by Frederick Douglass, written in 1845 with a preface by Wendell Phillips, is a brilliant book by a brilliant former slave in Maryland that everyone should read. It is a short, easy-to-read report of Douglass’ early life,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., USA

To Whom Was the Promised Land Promised?

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Professor Abraham A. Sion — author of the interesting, significant, and eye-opening book “To Whom Was The Promised Land Promised?” — knows the subject of the Israeli and Arab claims to the land of Israel better than most people. He served as deputy state attorney for

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Middle East

Purim is Practiced Today Differently Than the Biblical Requirement

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — The current practice is that Purim is celebrated as a one-day holiday. Cities that were walled at the time of Joshua’s conquest of Israel – most notably Jerusalem – celebrate Purim on Adar 15, as a commemoration of the end of hostilities in the walled city

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion

A Scholarly Rabbi Comments on the Book of Esther and More

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Urim Publications in Jerusalem and New York has just published Faith Fulfilled: Megillat Esther and The Maariv Evening Service for Purim with Commentary from the Writings of Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits. It is compiled and edited by Rabbi Dr. Reuven Mohl. The book is excellent. Rabbi Berkovits’

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

‘Forged’ Offers Real Insight on Bible’s Authors

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Bart C. Ehrman is a highly respected historian who was once a protestant clergyman who became an agnostic when he saw what biblical scholars consider the numerous errors, inconsistencies, forgeries, and deceits in the New Testament. He offers readers in Forged a view of the conclusion

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.

Israel’s First Ethiopian Rabbi Speaks to Us

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Rabbi Dr. Sharon Zewde Shalom, the author of the very thoughtful book Dialogues of Love and Fear, is without doubt what the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote about him, “a shining light of not only Ethiopian Jewry but of the Jewish people as a whole.”

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Middle East

Book Provides Comprehensive Analysis of Sephardic-Ashkenazi Differences

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Haim Jachter, the rabbi of a Sephardic synagogue for more than 20 years who is of Ashkenazic descent and trained in Ashkenazic yeshivot, tells readers about more than 100 differences in the religious practices between Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Ashkenazim are Jews of eastern European descent. Sephardic

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion