Essays
What Exactly Are We Celebrating on Hanukkah?
The story everyone knows, the Maccabees against the Greeks, did not even make it into the Bible. What the tradition kept instead is one small flask of oil, in a history full of…
Histoire juive
Essays
Why Do We Invite Guests to the Bread of Affliction?
At the start of the Seder the matzah is the bread of slavery, and by the middle of the night the very same matzah is the bread of freedom. We also open the evening by calling the…
Essays
What Holds Us Together When the Siren Stops?
We know how to be one people when we are attacked. Remarks on the sixth yahrzeit of Rabbi Sacks on what holds us together afterwards.
Balak
A People That Dwells Alone: Distinct, Not Isolated
Is Bilaam's "a people that dwells alone" a blessing or a curse? Being alone in Tanach is rarely good. The essay separates being set apart, which is our calling, from being…
Shemot
Why Does God Answer Moses in the Future Tense?
Moses asks God for His name, and the answer is often translated "I am what I am." But that translation misses what God is actually saying. When Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi is asked who…