Timely Thoughts

Yaakov Jaffe traces the origins and evolution of the custom to shake the lulav in different directions.

For Parshat Zakhor, this short story by Shira Eliaser richly imagines the world of King Saul and the clandestine encounter that brought Haman’s Amalekite ancestors into the world.

Yakov Ellenbogen reviews Susan Weingarten's Haroset: A Taste of Jewish History.

  Mark Glass I. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away. … Growing up, that’s how the gabba’im of my youth minyan would determine if...

Chaim Trachtman shows how a careful examination of debates between Shammai and Hillel challenge our preconceived notions about them.

Rabbi Adam Starr reflects on his community's hurricane relief efforts, and what it taught him about Jewish unity.

What led the Rabbis of the Seder to present Laban as a more diabolical enemy of the Jews than Pharaoh? Erica Brown shows how Laban took advantage of Jacob's insecurities as he arrived empty-handed at Laban's home.

David Polsky explores a passage in the Sifrei that is key to articulating a Halakahic position on withholding food as a military tactic.

Ayelet Wenger offers a creative, intertextual reading of the story of Rabbi Akiva and the Wolf on the Temple Mount.

What theological language can we use to describe our current pandemic moment? In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Jeremy Brown takes scope of the ancient and modern notions of plague theodicy and reviews some ideas from the 2021 National Jewish Book Award Winner Torah in a Time of Plague.