Holidays

As we approach a new calendar year, Ben Corvo's poem meditates retrospectively on this past Rosh Ha-Shanah and the darkness of everyday life.

Marina Zilbergerts explores the idea that Jonah does not repent in his Biblical narrative, instead emphasizing the value of human agency.

Chaim Saiman explores the grammatical structures of Yom Kippur mussaf, particularly in comparison to Torah reading.

Shimon Laufer examines how Rabbinic understanding of the holiday of Passover influenced the holiday of Purim, and how one of the oldest manuscripts of the Mishnah hints that the converse may be true as well.

A novel medieval interpretation by R. Yehudah ha-Levi about the counting of the omer may have a surprising basis in rabbinic countering of heresy.

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.

Yaakov Jaffe delves into two possible themes of the song Maoz Tzur.

Chaim Saiman on halakhic change and the observance of Tisha Be-Av.

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

In this essay, Fernando de Beer considers ideas of morality and ethics underlying the Unetaneh Tokef prayer.