JOEL M. HOFFMAN'S SPEECHES
The Bible Doesn't Say That: From misinterpreting the Ten Commandments to turning courtship into a felony, bad translations of the Bible have led millions of people astray. Learn the fascinating story of what happened and discover the truth behind many of our most common quotes from the Bible.
The Mystery and Majesty of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Since their discovery six decades ago, the Dead Sea Scrolls have captured the popular imagination, and created more controversy and intrigue, than any other ancient find. Hoffman offers a fascinating introduction to the content and history of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Alphabet Story: Three thousand years ago, a minor change to an otherwise obscure writing system paved the way for the alphabet and widespread literacy. Hoffman explains where writing comes from and why it is so important.
Three Thousand Years of Jewish Continuity as Seen Through Three Thousand Years of Hebrew: An exploration of the remarkable history that links the Jewish people to its historic language and identity through time: the fascinating story of how Hebrew began, why almost every written alphabet today can trace its roots to Hebrew, how Hebrew developed, where the text of the Bible comes from, the relevance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient manuscripts, and finally how modern Israeli Hebrew developed.
Four Exiles and Four Spiritual Revolutions: From the Ancient Prophets to Modernity: Judaism has seen four spiritual revolutions, each in the wake of a major exile. Hoffman offers an engaging and uplifting look at North American Judaism--the last spiritual revolution--as seen in the context of the last 3,000 years.
How do We Know What the Ancient Words Mean?: An overview of translation in general and the linguistic tools used to probe dead languages.