Holidays

  Aton M. Holzer The fifteenth of Av – among the most minor of minor festivals on the Jewish calendar – is marked in the diaspora...

Outside the Land of Israel, we add an extra day to several holidays. Michael Kurin wonders: why not on Hanukkah?

Can we imagine a world in which the Exodus never occurred? David Curwin suggests that this - as well as a broader dispute about the relationship between Torah and history - is subject to a dispute between The Rav, R. Joseph Dov he-Levi, and his namesake, the Beit ha-Levi.

  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...

Moshe Kurtz explores halakhic and hashkafic considerations surrounding bringing young children to shul.

Alan Jotkowitz shares insights into Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuvah

The Ne’ilah prayer, which we recite only once a year, clearly represents a moment of great religious drama, but its precise nature and purpose are somewhat mysterious. Alan Jotkowitz presents four different models for understanding Ne’ilah, drawing upon the teachings of Rav Yehuda Amital, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, and Rav Ya’akov Medan.

Stuart Halpern explains how, when faced with uncertainty, danger, and personal and communal hardships, Americans have turned to the story of the Exodus for inspiration.

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.

Two new poems by Temima Weissmann address national calamities, both past and present.