n>Rabbi Yonatan would have made an excellent defense lawyer for high-profile criminals. In a series of outrageous declarations, this third-century sage whitewashes some of most problematic biblical characters by minimizing their sins: “Rabbi Yonatan said: Whoever says that Reuben sinned is nothing but mistaken.” While Genesis charges Reuben with committing incest with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, the Talmud reinterprets these verses to mean that he simply rearranged his father’s beds so that Jacob would sleep with wife Leah on a night he was due to sleep with Bilhah. Read Full Article »