How the Conflict with Hamas Relates to Israel’s Struggle with Iran
The war between the wars goes on.
May 20, 2021
Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Lost Prayer
“There is only one joy: to increase and not to lessen the world’s joy.”
While the Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer is known for his sacrilegious literary treatments of Jews and Judaism—a ḥasidic typesetter was so offended by the novel Enemies: A Love Story that he destroyed the manuscripts—some of his nonfiction and unpublished works show a different attitude. One indication of this attitude is a short personal prayer, composed in Hebrew and scrawled on the back of a receipt in or around 1952. David Stromberg, whose translation (with some minor adjustments) is excerpted below, speculates that the prayer reflected a slow “return to religion” Singer undertook in the early 1950s.
May 20, 2021
Israel Has a Powerful Army and a Resilient People. But Unless It Seizes Control of Its Destiny, the Next Round of Fighting Will Be Worse
Tactical superiority doesn’t make up for the lack of a strategy.
The U.S. Need Not Choose between Fighting Terrorism and Countering the Threats from Russia and China
The two goals are complementary.
There’s No War on Religion—Yet
Why are so many people angry at a Catholic journalist for writing about having children?
Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Lost Prayer
“There is only one joy: to increase and not to lessen the world’s joy.”