Religion & Holidays
And future generations might shake their heads in disbelief at our own flagrant and heedless indulgence in real, literal idol worship.
A passage in the Talmud’s first tractate shows why it’s such a uniquely influential work, and so unlike anything in the history of Western literature, theology, or legal scholarship.
Some Jews who swear by yoga refer to it as akin to Kabbalah in its more mystical teachings and hence in some sense already “Jewish.” Others, not.
It’s at once the most famous affirmation of Jewish belief—no other sentence in Judaism is more powerful—and the most misunderstood.
Why the felt need to excise profanity from the Bible is fundamentally inane.
Moses inaugurated Jewish national independence. The prophet Jeremiah comes to oversee its collapse.
Bruriah is the only female cited repeatedly as a religious authority, and rarely shown in the roles the Talmud generally associates with women. Who was she?
Some end-of-year remarks on the path of life, spoken in honor of those who do end-of-life work.
The Tomb has become a shrine for thousands of pilgrims, just as Rachel herself has become the religion’s ultimate matriarch. Why?
One Soloveitchik warned about the dangers of Jewish-Christian dialogue. Another, his forebear, tried to intensify such dialogue, or so a third member of the family now argues. Is he right?
Josiah left a permanent stamp on Judaism, leading, for the first time in generations, an all-out battle against idolatry.
And what you need to know in case you ever encounter him.
The story of the three yods and other religious and aesthetic innovations.
Jonah is the anti-Moses: a prophet who wants to persuade the Lord that some people are that bad and should be made to pay for their sins.
