Holidays

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

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

Whose idea was Sinai? A midrash contends that Sinai was first conceived by Jethro. Ezra Zuckerman Sivan supports this Midrash from the Torah's text, and explains why Jethro was the appropriate vehicle for providing the rationale of Sinai.

Zev Eleff explains what Zionism has to do with Sukkot, at least in America.

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.

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

Does halakhah have something to say about the subjectivity of aesthetic experience? Yosie Levine investigates the case of fashioning a replica Temple Menorah as adjudicated in the eighteenth century and what it can tell us about halachic thinking about art and aesthetics.

What happens at the end of the old year? Hillel Broder explored this boundary in his new poem for the Lehrhaus.

As we prepare for Passover, enjoy these three poems by Bruce Black meditating on the past, present, and future of our Exodus.

Michael (Avi) Helfand on a recent court case with implications for American Jews as members of both a religious and a minority community.