Bible Review

In more relaxed mode, however, some ancient Greek burial customs provided not only basic necessities for the hereafter, but also toys and games, and in some special cases, slaves and even wives.

I am indebted to Andrew Alexander for calling my attention to this midrash and to Peggy Pearlstein of the Library of Congress and J. Michael Stern for helping me research it.

See Chaim Seiden, “Why Does Jonah Want to Die?” BR 15:03.

Modern critical scholarship dates the Book of Jonah considerably later, not earlier than the late sixth century B.C.E.

Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, chap. 43.

The rabbis discuss how it was that Pharaoh could be forgiven but not Amalek. The discussion is relevant to the question of whether Hitler could be forgiven. On the Internet, see www.masorti.org.

Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer (Friedlander edition; New York: Sepher-Hermon, 1965), p. 343; to the same effect, Mekhilta (Lauterbach edition), chap. 1.

Mekhilta, Beshallah, chap. 6 (chap. 7 in the Lauterbach edition).

Midrash, Genesis Rabbah 30.8, on Genesis 6:9, says that Pharaoh was plunged into the sea.

“It does not say Pharaoh pursued after them” (Midrash, Exodus Rabbah 15.15, on Exodus 12:2).