Holidays

The biblical figure of Esther is often interpreted by traditional and modern commentators as a heroine of active leadership. Naama Sadan offers a novel perspective, according to which Esther confronts national crisis in female-coded ways, triumphing and saving her people through internally-focused activism.

Yitzchak Blau and Michael Broyde respond to recent articles that have driven conversation.

After six months suspended between quarantine, isolation, and uncertainty, it’s natural to want to run away from home, especially as Yom Kippur looms and we realize it’s time for a change. But, as Matthew Nitzanim explains, this understandable reaction would miss the point of Teshuvah: everything we need to work on is right here, wherever it is we find ourselves.

Julie and Uri Goldstein offer a timely Haggadah for reflection this year.

Shmuel Hain comments on the leap year parshah-gap between Israel and the Diaspora.

Eliav Grossman examines the Talmud's account of drinking on Purim, reading it as directed at Christian texts and traditions.

In a piece that resonates today, Tzvi Sinensky examines what made the Jews' salvation from the plague of the firstborns so miraculous.

In his Yiddish poem "Hanukkah" (1932), Avrom Liessen poignantly recalled his early experience of the holiday. Dov Greenwood's vivid translation transports us into that wondrous world.

Levi Morrow provides an all-new translation of Rav Elhanan Nir’s “Kavvanot for Rosh Hashanah,” and analyzes how these theological poems speak about our relationship with God and prayer on Rosh Hashanah.

Leah Sarna argues that this is the Passover to tell the stories of enslaved Jewish women: of the victims of October 7, who were and likely still are subjected to sexual violence, and of the heroic women in the era of the Exodus, who fought to ensure the perpetuation of the Jewish people.