Holidays

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.

Michael Kurin explores different interpretations of what marks an end of mourning the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash.

Through a nuanced examination of interrelated minhagim, Nachman Levine shows how the custom of eating dairy foods, particularly blintzes, on Shavuot reenacts a collective initiation into Torah Study, allowing us to reexperience Revelation.

Rabbi Kenneth Brander, head of Ohr Torah Stone, explores what the daily blessing on Talmud Torah can teach us about how to foster religious continuity.

David Schwartz explores thematic similarities between the Hanukkah miracle and Pharaoh’s dreams.

Tikva Hecht’s moving elegy for her mother, a lyric essay told in verse and art, reflects on the fragility of life and the final confession we recite in the Yom Kippur Amidah.

Zvi Grumet suggests that when read in sequence, the kinot of R. Elazar Ha-Kalir—often seen as the ones most difficult to understand—offer a powerful theological narrative from despair to hope.

Eli Genauer explores the profound impact of a printing error on the halakhot of Pesah.

Yiscah Smith explores the conceptions of teshuvah presented in the writings of the Piaseczner Rebbe and the Ba’al Ha-Tanya, identifying in them a novel approach to personal growth that speaks to contemporary Jews.

Avi Killip explores the narrative of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai through a work of poetry.