Wise Trader or Deceitful Traitor? Eshet Hayil Reconsidered
Eliav Grossman contextualizes the femininity emerging from some of Proverbs' best known passages
Tasting the World to Come: A Novel Interpretation of Tzidkatkha Tzedek
Noam Stadlan offers a heartfelt reinterpretation of Tzidkatkha Tzedek.
Why Can’t Selihot Be More Like Kinot?
Yosef Lindell argues that the explanatory Kinot model, where fewer prayers are said but they are delved into in more depth, should be adopted for reciting Selihot.
When Kaddish Becomes Currency: Mapping Out the Mechanics of Merit
Moshe Kurtz explores several halakhic questions concerning the recitation of kaddish for the deceased, all of which point to a larger discussion about how one can confer merit on someone else.
Yatziv Pitgam: Poetry as Talmud Commentary
How should we understand Yatziv Pitgam, the enigmatic poem recited in the Haftarah for the second day of Shavuot? Tzvi Novick’s close reading reveals it to be a paean to the Torah and those who study it.
Praying for Governments We Dislike?
Historian Jonathan Sarna places a recent decision by an Orthodox synagogue to modify the "prayer for the government" into sharp historical focus.
A Love Letter to the Woman of Valor
Who is the Woman of Valor, really? She's a woman engaged in a relationship of mutuality, argues Malka Simkovich, and someone who has her own voice and deserves to be heard.
The Shofar as a Mekonenet, a Singer of Laments
Rebecca Cypess
As the only musical instrument used in modern Jewish liturgy, the shofar possesses a humble form. Halakhah forbids the modification of the shofar’s...
Before, After, and During: Yehuda Amichai’s “Beterem”
In this timely article, Wendy Zierler examines how Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai's "Beterem" can provide readers with the inspiration they need leading up to the Days of Awe
The Parenthetical Problem of Alenu
Zev Eleff on a perennially interesting portion of the liturgy.
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