In a worship service almost defined by its eloquence, Judaism mandates an unintelligible noise.

Why the words for both are so similar in so many languages, and why Hebrew has turned out to be the rare exception.

No judge is so great as to be exempt from showing deference to the judicial hierarchy at large.

The rabbi and public intellectual comes by our studio to discuss the meaning of kashrut, with the help of some unusual examples.

Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox look much different from the way they appeared fifty years ago. In part two of our conversation, we look at what’s changed.

By and for Orthodox women, Mikva, which has affinities with The Vagina Monologues, opens up a once-secretive ritual while staying firmly in line with tradition.

Elisha ben Avuyah became a vehicle for exploring the agonizing conundrums the rabbis were too honest to ignore but too pious to articulate.

The eminent historian of American Jewish life stops by to talk about the findings in his latest book The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today.

Host means army, but who were God’s armies?

Amid the familiar clutter of vowels and cantillation marks, a few strange dots appear. They have no obvious function, and yet they go back thousands of years. Their purpose is . . .

The great Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik’s “Scroll of Orpah” retells the story of the book of Ruth from another perspective.

How the 14th-century creators of an illustrated Pentateuch managed to reflect both the Jewish and the Christian worlds they lived in.