Holidays

Chaim Katz examines the commonplace assumption that Rabbi Akiva's students died as a consequence of the Bar Kokhva rebellion, showing how the details depict a more nuanced story and provide a clue as to how Rabbi Akiva's Torah was passed down.

A novel medieval interpretation by R. Yehudah ha-Levi about the counting of the omer may have a surprising basis in rabbinic countering of heresy.

Peninah Taragin Gershman I once made a Holocaust joke. It was not intentional, and it was not planned, but I said it, and it landed...

נמשלת ללבנה ניסן תשפ׳ו שושנה הברמן והוצאתי והצלתי וגאלתי .ולקחתי כאיילת השחר שבקע אורה ,כך היא גאולתן של ישראל ,בתחילה קימעא קימעא כל מה שהיא הולכת .היא רבה, והולכת ?היינו כחולמים -בזמן שהרועה תועה .תועין אחריו -אבל אפילו בצל...

In this essay, Steve Lipman compares how the Black American community and how the Jewish American community commemorate their slavery narratives.

The worldview and thought process of Haman bear an uncanny resemblance to those of contemporary antisemitic movements. Drawing on the work of French psychoanalyst Jacque Lacan, Zach Truboff explores the fantasy at the heart of Haman's rage, takes note of its contemporary echoes, and proposes that Jews must beware of stumbling into our own version of this fantasy. This essay was written before the war with Iran. That Khamenei, who embodied the antisemitic fantasy as fully as any figure in our lifetime, was eliminated on the eve of Purim requires no commentary beyond what the Megillah itself provides.

In this essay, Michael Kurin analyzes the book of Esther in the context of the Second Temple and the diaspora.

The propriety of celebrating the downfall of enemies presents a complex web of questions and seemingly contradictory Jewish texts. Michael Kurin makes sense of this subject and proposes a framework for applying it to matters of Israeli public policy.

In this winning essay of the Ateret Zvi Prize, Dr. Ethan Schwartz analyzes the Yamim Nora'im experience and interpretations of what happened to Korah's children.

Julian Alper analyzes two paintings which feature etrogim, Marc Chagall’s “Feast Day (Rabbi with Lemon)” and Paula Gans's “In Prayer at Sukkot,” through the lens of a commentary by Rabbi Norman Lamm.