Response ·
Join Chaim Saiman, Rabbi Ya’akov Trump, and Jonathan Silver for a conversation about how and why Tanakh was sidelined in Jewish education, and why it’s now making a comeback.
Monthly Essay ·
Relearning the language of nationhood.
Observations ·
Only one was a mark of prestige for ancient rabbis.
Observations ·
By way of an ancient Roman holiday and two very similar Hebrew letters.
Observations ·
Some 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.
Observations ·
Whether it’s Judeo-Arabic, or Judeo-Italian, or Judeo-Spanish, or the Judeo-German better known as Yiddish, they all mix in varying amounts of Hebrew.
Observations ·
An ancient rabbinic dispute pitted eminent scholars against one another. The Taḥanun prayer is rooted in that story of public shame and private distress.
Observations ·
A 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.
Observations ·
Bruriah is the only female cited repeatedly as a religious authority, and rarely shown in the roles the Talmud generally associates with women. Who was she?
Observations ·
Elisha ben Avuyah became a vehicle for exploring the agonizing conundrums the rabbis were too honest to ignore but too pious to articulate.
Observations ·
Medieval and modern Hebrew are unusually rich in abbreviations, but in a manner that is the reverse of English.
Observations ·
The answer comes down to the nature of deliverance, and to what you think the Jewish state represents.
Observations ·
There are three Hebrew expressions for the days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. Two are well-known. The third? No one's quite sure what it means.
Observations ·
God ordered the prophet Hosea to marry a whore and father her children. The rabbis can't decide if the story actually happened or was purely symbolic.
Observations ·
The wildly popular movement relies on simplified and selective readings of traditional sources. We deserve better.
Observations ·
It's not just bad grammar.
Response ·
There are many facets of the Mizrahi story that remain unknown.
Response ·
A reply to my respondents.
Response ·
Orthodox rabbis need to stop worrying about 200-year-old battles with “Reformers” and allow Jewish law to develop organically, as it always did in the past.
Response ·
There have been two moments in the last 150 years when the assumptions behind Jewish law seemed poised to change. Nothing happened. Is today different?
Response ·
Why Jewish law is more a set of guidelines than of rules.
Observations ·
The Torah’s problem with trying to lead a quiet, comfortable life.
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