Today’s Jewniverse is about a translation of the Shema prayer — only, it’s not the prayer as you’ve ever heard it. Rabbi Darby Jared Leigh talks about the word-to-word translation, asking whether “Israel” refers to the place or the people Israel — and why would you start a prayer off “Hear O Israel” when you [...]

“When our love was strong, we could have made our bed on the blade of a sword. Now that our love is no longer strong, a bed sixty cubits wide is not large enough” –Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 7a Find more Wise Fridays wisdom on MJL.  

“Where there is no food there is no Torah; and where there is no Torah there is no food.” –Pirkei Avot, 3:21 Find more Wise Fridays wisdom on MJL.  

I became Orthodox under the guidance of someone who advised me to run from it. Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel, the rabbi of the Kesher Israel Congregation in Washington D.C. — whose name you might recognize from the 2000 presidential election, when he was constantly quoted as “Joe Lieberman’s rabbi” and asked deeply-thought questions like, “If [...]

“How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel. Like brooks are they turned, like gardens by the river, like cedars beside the waters the waters flow from God’s buckets… Those who bless you are blessed and those who curse you are cursed.” –Numbers 24:5-9 Find more Wise Fridays wisdom on MJL. [...]

The Bible doesn’t do the best job of letting the main characters tell their side of the story. Take Moses for example. He must have been pretty pissed when God made him go speak in front of Pharoah even though he stated clearly that he had a stutter. Another example is Adam and Eve. Adam [...]

“A man should never single out one of his children for favored treatment, for because of two extra coins’ worth of silk, which Jacob gave to Joseph and not to his other sons, Joseph’s brothers became jealous of him, and one thing led to another until our ancestors became slaves in Egypt.” –Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat [...]

A new book “relies on an imaginative reading of the Bible supplemented by legends and lore promulgated by Jews, Christians, and Muslims over the centuries’ to create an “unauthorized biography” of King Solomon. (Jewish Ideas Daily) Remarkably, “the Bible remains a vital text in secular Israeli culture,” and a new book “approaches the Bible…as an [...]

Our good friends at AJWS are looking for a few more good women and men to write their social justice commentaries. It’s a great opportunity for writers and activists of all kinds. AJWS is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for the Dvar Tzedek Lisa Goldberg Memorial Writers’ Fellowship for 5772 / 2011-2012. [...]

Guess what? The Maxwell House Haggadah is being reissued this year, and it’s new and improved…but let’s face it, probably still solidly mediocre. If you’re looking to add something new to your Haggadah collection this year, I recommend the brand new JPS haggadah, Go Forth and Learn: A Passover Haggadah written by Rabbi David Silver [...]