Jews throughout the world celebrate the first nights of Passover, which commemorate God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt 3,500 years ago. The focus is the Seder, a meal at which a variety of commandments are fulfilled, most notably the eating of matza (unleavened bread) . . . . Continue Reading »
Anti-Semitism, it has often been observed, is remarkably adaptable. Across countless centuries, anti-Semites have targeted Jews because of their wealth and their poverty, their power and their frailty, their piety and their godlessness, their tribalistic chauvinism and their rootless . . . . Continue Reading »
As American Jews hear the story of Ruth and Naomi during the upcoming holiday, they can relate Ruth’s tremendous accomplishments as a penniless immigrant who became the ancestor of a great king to America’s history as an immigrant-welcoming nation. Continue Reading »
We Jews know death. Leaf through the Talmud, that treasure trove of rabbinic wisdom, lore, and law, and you’ll find the grim reaper loafing about on every other page, inspiring scores of intricate debates about what precisely we must do when faced with the Great Unfathomable. Judaism gives us no . . . . Continue Reading »
Philosophers are supposed to be doubters. When we think of Socrates, the patron saint and martyr of philosophy, we usually fix on the early Platonic dialogues, which depict him as a man who defended no positive doctrine but was such a nuisance with his doubt-inducing questions that the guardians . . . . Continue Reading »