Kept From Keeping the Sabbath
by Michael A. HelfandA recent court case concerning accommodations for Orthodox Jews on Shabbat raises the question: How can the law build a more decent society for the faithful? Continue Reading »
Of Dying and Rising
by Mark BauerleinJeffrey Pulse joins the podcast to discuss his recent book, Figuring Resurrection: Joseph as a Death and Resurrection Figure in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism. Continue Reading »
Mere Judaism
by Mark GottliebSeventy years ago, the European émigré Chaim Grade (pronounced “GRAH-deh”) published a short story that would secure his place in the pantheon of great Yiddish writers of the twentieth century. “Mayn krig mit hersh rasseyner,” usually rendered in English as “My Quarrel with Hersh . . . . Continue Reading »
True Jewish Lit
by Cole S. AronsonThe title of Adam Kirsch’s survey of twentieth-century Jewish literature can be read in two ways. In historical terms, the Holocaust was the curse. The founding of Israel and the welcome Jews received in America were the blessings. But as a literary matter, the blessing and the curse were the . . . . Continue Reading »
A Treatise on Two Cities
by Joshua P. HochschildTertullian’s question—“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”—has generally been asked by Christians wondering to what extent they can draw on Greek wisdom. In answer, many theologians analogized Greek philosophy to Hebrew faith: Both were incomplete but preparatory. Clement of . . . . Continue Reading »
Why I Keep Kosher
by J.H.H. WeilerIf you yourself are not obliged to observe Kosher, or if you simply elect not to (only a minority of Jews actually do), you must have wondered from time to time: What’s the point? You can eat meat after dairy products, but you cannot consume dairy after meat? (And mixed together—a . . . . Continue Reading »
Bread of Poverty
by Shalom CarmyIn the Bible, the week-long holiday of Passover is usually called the festival of unleavened bread (matzot). During those seven days (eight, outside of Israel) Jews refrain from leavened bread and divest themselves of it. Clear as this obligation may be, the basis of these laws is presented . . . . Continue Reading »
The Lesson of Leaven
by Cole S. AronsonThe destruction of chametz is the rejection of what diverts us from God. Continue Reading »
Loaves of Blessing
by Sara WolkenfeldThe primal act of feeding others allows me to strengthen them and help them to thrive. This is the role of bread, no matter your religion. Continue Reading »
T. S. Eliot and the Jews
by David P. GoldmanThere recur in the work of T. S. Eliot two obsessions that make one cringe: his Jew-hatred and his contempt for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The first is sometimes excused as a reflection of ambient prejudice, the second as critical crankiness. In fact, these obsessions have a common source. The . . . . Continue Reading »
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