1+ hour, 35+ min ago   (396+ words) The verse in this week’s Torah portion contains various aspects and has in- spired many interpretations. It speaks of establishing judicial systems throughout the Land of Israel. These judges must be knowledgeable of the Torah’s laws and living by them....

3+ day, 44+ min ago   (401+ words) I’m having a difficult time understanding the episode of King David and Avishag the Shunamite. When he was old, his servants found a young virgin to lie with him and keep him warm (I Kings 1:1-4). How was this permitted? And…...

4+ day, 22+ hour ago   (195+ words) From Egypt to the Holocaust, Jewish history follows a pattern: the seeds of redemption are planted in the midst of destruction....

5+ day, 19+ hour ago   (712+ words) A trip to Rome's Great Synagogue led me to an insight about hope, and why it's the one thing real change depends on. Standing inside the Great Synagogue of Rome, I couldn't stop staring at the architecture and everything surrounding…...

6+ day, 2+ hour ago   (563+ words) How does a person achieve closeness with God? Every major religion seems to agree: divine connection requires withdrawal from the world. Tibetan monks spend years in mountain caves. Christian mystics embrace austere poverty. Hindu sadhus renounce all worldly attachments. Judaism…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (647+ words) This week’s Torah portion singles out the meisit – the inciter who entices a Jew to worship idols – with the harshest treatment of any transgressor in the Torah. The verse says: You shall not accede to him [the missionary] and not…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (21+ words) The internet's most prominent antisemites are accusing each other of having Jewish ancestry, from Nick Fuentes and Sneako to Dan Bilzerian....

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (44+ words) The Talmud gives six different reasons for celebrating this date, from tribal reconciliation to the end of the desert generation's deaths to the wood offerings for the Temple altar. None of them seem to explain why this became a day…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (1093+ words) The Talmud derives from this verse that everything is in the hands of Heaven except fear of Heaven (Berachos 33b). Since fear of Heaven is the only thing completely in our power, it is the only thing Hashem can ask of…...

2+ week, 2+ hour ago   (1820+ words) A decade of addiction and grief, a trip to Israel, and a marriage transformed. One family's unlikely path to a Jewish life. Yosef Waslow’s mother was Jewish and white. His father was Black and had been raised in a Baptist…...