Monthly Essay ·
Fear and Joy in Sepharad and Ashkenaz
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikWhat happens when an Ashkenazi rabbi leads a Sephardi synagogue during the Days of Awe? A profound encounter with new moods in Jewish life.
Religion & Holidays
Latest Mosaic Content for Religion & Holidays
Observation ·
Do Jews Have Martyrs?
By Aton HolzerThe idea of martyrdom is an uncomfortable one for Jews. Yet respect for religious self-sacrifice finds its very origins among them, as I saw on Mount Herzl this summer.
Observation ·
When Did Jews Settle on the Seven-Day Week?
By PhilologosIt was only in the early-to-mid first millennium BCE that both the ancient Babylonians and the ancient Hebrews began dividing their lunar months into seven-day periods.
Observation ·
Did the Ancient Sage Hillel Really Invent the Sandwich?
By PhilologosThe truth of the tale of Hillel and the "Hillel sandwich."
Response ·
Jews Shouldn’t Take the AI Hype at Face Value
By L. M. SacasasCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Response ·
Jews Aren’t Loud Enough about AI
By David Zvi KalmanCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Response ·
Keeping Kosher in the Age of AI
By Chaim SaimanCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Observation ·
The Purim Grogger’s Name Comes from Spain
By PhilologosThe holiday noisemaker bears a suspicious resemblance to the Spanish carraca .
Observation ·
What Invoking Amalek Means Today
By PhilologosThe name of the biblical tribe of murderers, the arch-rivals of ancient Israel, has been much discussed in the wake of October 7. Is that appropriate?
Observation ·
The Mystery of the Angel of Rain
By PhilologosAn ancient prayer for rain mentions an angel named Af-bri. But where did he come from?
Observation ·
What Forgiveness Shares with Forgetting
By PhilologosIn both Hebrew and English.
Observation ·
The Battle of the Seventy Translators
By PhilologosHow many rabbis first translated the Hebrew Bible, and how many different translations did they produce?
Observation ·
How Many Egyptian Words Made It into Biblical Hebrew?
By PhilologosAnd does their presence illuminate the book of Exodus—or is it simply a sign that ancient Egypt was a powerful nation?
Observation ·
Did Adam Speak Hebrew?
By PhilologosThe ancient rabbis believed there was linguistic proof that the first man spoke Hebrew with God. Why?
Observation ·
The Contradictions of Kol Nidrei
By PhilologosOne renowned talmudic scholar called the now-beloved prayer a "foolish custom that is not to be followed." What did he mean and how did it survive?
Observation ·
The Not-So-Mysterious Logic of the Shiddukh System
By Eli SpitzerEveryone from Netflix to the Forward is fascinated by the ḥaredi matchmaking system because it rejects liberal norms. Here's what they're missing.
Observation ·
How Literally Do Jews Take the Hebrew Bible?
By Jeffrey BloomA major tenet of rabbinic Judaism is that the Bible is not to be taken literally. But of course that's not the whole story.
Observation ·
The Proof of the Exodus Hidden in the Ancient Word Sha’atnez
By PhilologosThe word , like a small number of other Egyptian loanwords in the Bible, testifies to a period in which the early Israelite nation, or a part of it, was in intimate contact with Egyptian life.
Observation ·
The History of Jews Giving Their Children Both Hebrew and English First Names
By PhilologosJewish history has always known periods in which double naming existed, always in places in which Jews were relatively well-integrated in the non-Jewish society around them.
Observation ·
The Specter of Satmar
By Eli SpitzerHow did a small Transylvanian movement become the most powerful player in worldwide ultra-Orthodoxy?
Observation ·
Why English-Speaking Jews Call It “Passover” Rather Than “Pesah”
By PhilologosOne never hears Jews speak among themselves of Sukkot as the holiday of Booths, or of Rosh Hashanah as New Year's Day. Why the difference?
Observation ·
A Mysterious Erasure in a 700-Year-Old Manuscript of the Hebrew Bible
By Marc Michael EpsteinOne recent Saturday morning, I was following the Torah portion from a late-13th-century manuscript and noticed some strange faded text and stress lines. What did they mean?
Observation ·
The Connection Between a Just-Discovered Ancient Hebrew Inscription and Modern Yiddish
By Philologos"An earthquake in biblical scholarship” is how the discovery has been described. That's true, as are the connections it reveals between ancient languages and modern ones.
Observation ·
Why the Bible Uses the Word “And” So Much
By PhilologosThe Hebrew of the Bible has many more and s than does modern English prose, a feature that's surprisingly crucial to its literary power.
Observation ·
Should Moses Be Called Moshe?
By PhilologosA new edition of the Hebrew Bible edited by the late Jonathan Sacks Hebraizes its names in a way that bibles almost never do. Why, and what's at stake?
Observation ·
Jonathan Sacks and the Case of the Suppressed Stanza
By PhilologosThe final, often-skipped stanza of the popular Hanukkah candle-lighting song Ma’oz Tsur presented the late rabbi with an unusual challenge.
Observation ·
The Intellectual Fireworks of Talmud Study Move Outside the Yeshiva
By Moshe KrakowskiSome of the most interesting and creative work in all of Jewish studies today is happening neither in universities nor as part of a yeshiva curriculum.
Observation ·
Rama Burshtein and Meir Soloveichik Talk “Fill the Void”
By Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Rama Burshtein, Jonathan SilverThe Israeli director and the American rabbi team up to discuss her groundbreaking film about marriage and Jewish life.
Observation ·
The Mystery Tucked Inside a Powerful High Holy Day Prayer
By PhilologosApart from Kol Nidrei, no High Holy Day prayer is better known than Un’taneh Tokef. But there's a puzzle at its heart.
Observation ·
Does Day Follow Night, or Night Follow Day?
By PhilologosGod’s first creative proclamation was “Let there be light,” so it might seem that the day came first. But then why does the Bible say that "it was evening and it was morning?"
