The U.S. Appears to Have Rewarded Tehran for Trying to Kidnap an American Citizen
Choosing appeasement over human rights.
July 16, 2021
God’s Absent Tears in the Book of Lamentations
Sumerian poems, the midrash, and the Divine virtuoso of grieving.
Four thousand years ago, ancient Sumerian priests composed poems of lament to mourn the catastrophes visited on the city of Ur—the birthplace of Abraham—due to foreign invasion. Edward Greenstein notes some similarities between these texts and the biblical book of Lamentations, composed a millennium and a half later, after the destruction of the First Temple, although he deems it “implausible” that the Babylonian works had any direct influence on the Jewish one. He also observes a striking difference between Lamentations—read in synagogues this Saturday night, the beginning of the fast day of Tisha b’Av—and its pagan precursors:
July 16, 2021
Ramallah, Not Jerusalem, Is the Proper Place for an American Diplomatic Mission to the Palestinians
A consulate with a long history and a troubling future.
Jews and the Crisis of American Education
Awakening a vivid sense of the past in preparation for the looming challenges and responsibilities of the future.
God’s Absent Tears in the Book of Lamentations
Sumerian poems, the midrash, and the Divine virtuoso of grieving.