Torah

The Jewish Samuel Menashe

The poet Samuel Menashe, who died on August 22 at the age of eighty-five, grew up in Queens, New York. His poems have always been appreciated by other poets; but, until late in his life, his poetry did not receive the attention it deserved.

The Challenge of Eilat

In a country where the sky is mostly blue, the southernmost city of Eilat has nonetheless laid claim—with justification—to being Israel's sun capital. Reliably good weather does not, however, solve all problems.

The New Enemies of Circumcision

Among the practices that have characterized the Jewish people over the millennia, surely none has been observed more widely, or more faithfully, than circumcision.

Reconstructing Judaism

At a time when all three major Jewish denominations in America—Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform—find themselves in a state of deep internal fracture, a fourth and much smaller movement, Reconstructionism, has just voted to create a unified body to coordinate the activities of its lay and rabbinical arms.

Slaughterhouse Rules

Pending approval by its upper house of parliament, the Netherlands will join Switzerland and a handful of other Western countries in mandating that animals slaughtered for food must first be stunned unconscious, generally by a hammer blow to the skull.

The Loyalties of the Sephardim

In a recent Haaretz column, Gideon Levy, the radical leftist polemicist, sounded the warning that Israel's religious Zionists—"the knitted skullcaps"—have joined hands with the ultra-Orthodox and the Sephardim to form "a united tribe of zealots."

The Bible and the Good Life

What manner of work is the Hebrew Bible? The 17th-century freethinker Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza had an answer. As part of his war to emancipate philosophy from the influence of religion, he reduced the biblical message to, in effect, one word: obedience.

The Reluctant Renegade

Since its founding, Conservative Judaism in the U.S. has defined itself in sharp contrast to Reform, pursuing a more religiously centrist and Zionist middle course. Its UK parallel, Masorti ("traditional") Judaism, was born as a secession movement from Orthodoxy—inspired by theologian Louis Jacobs.

What is Aggadah, and How to Read It

Although the Talmud is best known for its discourse on religious law, its pages contain a vast amount of non-legal material, including ethical teachings, interpretations of biblical narratives (midrash), and excurses on topics from brain surgery to dream interpretation.

Israelites in the Anglo-Saxon Sea

Since it was first composed, there have been dozens—if not hundreds—of renderings of the Hebrew Bible. The process of translation and creative elaboration began during the first millennium B.C.E.