Timely Thoughts

David Selis and Zvi Erenyi share their memories of JTS Librarian Professor Menahem Schmelzer for his sheloshim.

Stephen Denker reconstructs Bert Katz's experience of Kristallnacht in Nentershausen.

  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...

In unpacking the meaning of a tricky verse from Eikhah that we say as part of the Shofar service on Rosh Hashanah, Mitchell First introduces us to the literary principle called hendiadys, which can help us understand various phrases throughout Tanakh.

Yaakov Jaffe explores four themes of Psalm 24 as recited on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Beth Kissileff explains how Moses' complaint about not being the Israelite's nursemaid shows how he is unfit for leadership.

Avraham’s challenge to God’s planned destruction of Sodom raises the fundamental ethical problem of collective punishment. The resolution of this challenge, Sruli Fruchter explains, enables Avraham to realize God’s highest ideals and to confront the conflict between compassion for oppressors and consideration for their victims.

Several reasons are given in our tradition about the reason for the fast on the Tenth of Tevet. The liturgy for the day takes a stand on what the true reasons are, but Yaakov Jaffe questions whether this stand is the right one.

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.

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