The debate about the central meaning of Tisha b’Av goes back more than 1500 years to a debate between Rabbi Judah who said Ei’khah can only mean (learning from) prophetic reproof, and Rabbi Nehemiah ...

The monastic community at Qumran is identified by most scholars with the Essenes, a strict, Jewish sect known from the writings of Josephus and of Philo.

The Essenes are, in consequence, excluded from the court of the Temple in Jerusalem, and apparently they never go near this center of Jewish worship.

This video dives into the evidence that points to the community at Qumran and explores the possibility that the Essenes, a Jewish sect, were behind these incredible writings.

A fascinating revelation from the scrolls is the existence of a “second Torah,” a text accepted only by the Essenes.

For the first century of its existence, Christianity functioned almost as another sect within Judaism—much like the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, Herodians, and Samaritans.

Opinion: Churches and their strident faiths have been perhaps the most guilty of upsetting democracy by installing chaos and tyranny in its place.