Observation ·
Esther Shows How to Speak Your Mind Without Undermining Social Order
By Atar HadariThe star of this week's Purim story gets her point across because of the way she tells certain truths.
Atar Hadari
Atar Hadari's Songs from Bialik: Selected Poems of H. N. Bialik (Syracuse University Press) was a finalist for the American Literary Translators’ Association Award. His Lives of the Dead: Poems of Hanoch Levin earned a PEN Translates award and was released in 2019 by Arc Publications. He was ordained by Rabbi Daniel Landes and is completing a PhD on William Tyndale’s translation of Deuteronomy.
Latest Content
Observation ·
Did the Rabbis Think the Maccabees Were Too Militaristic?
By Atar HadariThe problem was not that the stars of the Hanukkah story were too heroic, but that they confused their military heroism for the capacity of communal leadership.
Observation ·
The Significance of Supplication
By Atar HadariAn ancient rabbinic dispute pitted eminent scholars against one another. The Taḥanun prayer is rooted in that story of public shame and private distress.
Observation ·
A Blueprint for Jewish Law
By Atar HadariA passage in the Talmud's first tractate shows why it's such a uniquely influential work, and so unlike anything in the history of Western literature, theology, or legal scholarship.
Observation ·
Bookends to the Jews’ First Experience with Statehood
By Atar HadariMoses inaugurated Jewish national independence. The prophet Jeremiah comes to oversee its collapse.
Observation ·
The Upside-Down, Perfectionist Prophecy of Jonah
By Atar HadariJonah is the anti-Moses: a prophet who wants to persuade the Lord that some people are that bad and should be made to pay for their sins.
Observation ·
What Contemporary Judges Can Learn from the Judges of Yore
By Atar HadariNo judge is so great as to be exempt from showing deference to the judicial hierarchy at large.
Observation ·
How the “Jewish National Poet” Revitalized an Ancient Literary Form
By Atar HadariThe great Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik's "Scroll of Orpah" retells the story of the book of Ruth from another perspective.
Observation ·
All the Reasons Why You Don’t Want a Career in Prophecy
By Atar HadariJust after his moment of glory, the prophet Elijah finds himself alone and deserted.
Observation ·
A Pagan-Seeming Blessing in the Daily Prayers
By Atar HadariWhy do Jews praise the great lights?
Observation ·
Of a Widow, a Patroness, Their Stricken Sons, and Two Hebrew Prophets
By Atar HadariWhat a pair of parallel stories tells us about gratitude and awe.
Observation ·
Why Judaism Takes Rain Very Seriously
By Atar HadariThe land given to the Israelites provided ample space for crops and livestock, but there was a catch: the water doesn't come for free.
Observation ·
The Prophet Whose Glorious Words Permeate Jewish Consciousness
By Atar HadariIsaiah's unforgettable language serves much the same role in spoken Hebrew that Shakespeare’s does in English.
Observation ·
Is There a Physical Reality to God?
By Atar HadariThat's the question raised by a poem sung at many Ashkenazi services.
Observation ·
The Happiest Psalm of Them All
By Atar HadariIn a biblical book many of whose poems express anxiety and apprehension, Psalm 104 is a confident and joyous singalong.
Observation ·
Joseph vs. Moses: A Comparison
By Atar HadariOne engages in dialogue with his fellow Jews, and one engages in a dialogue with God. What's the meaning of the difference?
Observation ·
Who is Serenaded on Friday Night: the Woman of the House, or the Divine Presence?
By Atar HadariBefore the meal on Sabbath eve, the prayer book offers a song of praise to the ideal woman.
Observation ·
Why Some Rabbis Have Loved the Sabbath Prayer “Shalom Aleykhem”—and Some Haven’t
By Atar HadariThe promise and peril of calling angels to bless your Sabbath table.
Observation ·
The Sh’ma Is the Jewish Safety Net
By Atar HadariThe brave attempt at monotheism was bound to go wrong sometimes, and when it did, the Israelites would need help putting the pieces back together again.
Observation ·
Benzion Netanyahu, the Altalena, and Me
By Atar HadariLooking back at the founding moments of the state of Israel with the father of the current prime minister.
Observation ·
The Case of the Non-Jewish Prophet
By Atar HadariWith his fatal weakness for the lure of fame and fortune, the prophet-for-hire Balaam seems completely our contemporary.
Observation ·
Two Anthem-Like Views of What Judaism Boils Down To
By Atar HadariThe two great liturgical songs of Yigdal and Adon Olam offer rival attempts to summarize the essence of Judaism.
Observation ·
Why the Lord Doesn’t Allow David to Build the Temple
By Atar HadariDavid remains a revolutionary hero, a guerrilla leader and desert tribal bandit—too much of a renegade at heart to be entrusted with His house.
Observation ·
The Darkest Day in the History of Judaism?
By Atar HadariWhen Israelites who stood for God were ordered to kill their fellows who had stood for the Golden Calf.
Observation ·
Prayers for the Departed
By Atar HadariThe two disparate texts intoned at Ariel Sharon's funeral tell us much about contemporary Jewish attitudes toward life, death, and the land of Israel.
Observation ·
One of the Most Spectacular Songs of Praise in the Jewish Liturgy
By Atar HadariNishmat starts with the wide-open sky and the wings of eagles; it ends deep inside the recesses of the body, in our vital organs.
Observation ·
The Murder-Ballad of Abraham and Isaac
By Atar HadariCan you imagine the person who bathed you and put you to bed at night tying you up one day and holding a knife to your throat?
Observation ·
The Siddur Is a Battlefield
By Atar HadariThe ancient priesthood, the Pharisees, the kabbalists, the Ḥasidim—each of these and more have made a stand in the prayer book for what they think Judaism should be.
Observation ·
For the Torah, Women Aren’t Commodities, and Marriage Isn’t a Pro-Forma Prelude to Sex
By Atar HadariThe point of the Torah's rules on foreign brides and divorce.
Observation ·
One of the Most Profound Paradigm Shifts in Jewish History
By Atar HadariA biblical story marks the moment when Judaism turned from charismatic authority to institutional authority, and from the rule of judgment to the rule of law.
