Religion & Holidays
That’s the contention of a new book by a major historian of ancient Judaism. It deserves serious attention, but it also overstates its case.
An ancient rabbinic dispute pitted eminent scholars against one another. The Taḥanun prayer is rooted in that story of public shame and private distress.
Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Aharon Lichtenstein, and what Maimonides missed.
A look at the legacy of the man who revitalized Modern Orthodoxy and who was perhaps “the greatest composer of sermons in the English-speaking rabbinic world.”
To where and what language does the great Jewish philosopher and his name belong?
The author of our May essay on the Zoom seder joins us to talk about his ideas and the debate surrounding them.
The leading Conservative rabbi joins us to a look at the task facing America’s liberal denominations.
From Ashkenazi and Sephardi to strict and lenient.
The Zoom-seder ruling was intended to ease human suffering, but it was also, in effect, a maneuver for influence within the Sephardi rabbinate and a bid to resist historical forgetfulness.
How the Zoom-seder debate opens up on questions of virtual reality.
Lenient rulings in response to new situations are not necessary if unfortunate accommodations, they are instead a testament to the strength and durability of Judaism.
The author of our April essay joins us to talk about how to read the book of Exodus, how the Israelites became a people, and plenty more.
Some families prefer the connection it offers. But an online seder seems like an acknowledgement of generational failure, a stopgap measure to keep nostalgic religious affiliation afloat.
Even though it takes liberties rendering the original text, a new Danish Bible breaks from anti-Semitic Christian replacement theology in a far clearer way than ever before.
