Holidays

It is customary to celebrate Tu Bi-Shevat by eating fruits and reciting the She-Hehiyanu blessing on them. This custom, however, has proved challenging in recent years as advances in technology have made it difficult to find new fruit—as defined by halakhah—to say the She-Hehiyanu

Through an analysis of Hanukkah ads, Yael Buechler explains how Yiddish newspapers used the Old Country language to acculturate Jews to the New Country.

Michael Bernstein examines how the individual experience is ironically incorporated into holidays that are all about the community.

With Hoshanah Rabbah today and the theme of repentance in mind, Jack Cohen explores the role that outsiders play in one's teshuva process through an enigmatic midrash instructing one to return a person to themselves.

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.

Where is Yosef in the haggadah? Max Hollander suggests that through his absence, he is very present, teaching us about the importance of remembering the forgotten.

Why is the annulment of vows so central to the High Holy Days? Wendy Amsellem discusses this, with a timely message.

In honor of Shavuot 5784, Dalia Wolfson presents five new bilingual poems that explore the themes of the third perek of Mishnah Bikkurim and contemplate their possible inversion.

  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...

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.