Holidays

Benjamin Barer traces the word Hevel through Jewish texts, showing how the use of the same word can teach us both about the wisdom of Kohelet we read this past Shabbat and the character of Hevel who we will read about in this week's Parashah.

Akiva Mattenson writes on the relationship between God and Judgement.

Ezra Sivan explores the idea of confession, through the eyes of King David

Yosef Lindell examines why Shomron Kol Titein is a fitting conclusion to the daytime kinnot on Tisha Be-Av.

Yosef Lindell examines how Yehudah ha-Levi's kinnah about the bubbling blood of Zechariah modifies the story found in Talmudic sources and thus tackles the question of theodicy.

Jerome Marcus explores understandings of freedom within halakhah and how they relate to Pesah and Shavuot

In advance of Shavuot, Stuart Halpern reviews Reading Ruth, a succinct but poignant new literary commentary on the Book of Ruth, by Leon Kass and his granddaughter Hannah Mandelbaum.

In advance of Tisha Be-Av, Tzvi Novick annotates and interprets the kinnah of a’adeh ad hug shamayim by the master poet R. Eleazar ha-Kalir, unlocking its complex acrostic to determine who its speaker is meant to be.

Avi Killip explores the narrative of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai through a work of poetry.

Eli Genauer explores the profound impact of a printing error on the halakhot of Pesah.