Jill Jacobs

How to Count the Omer

A guide to the ritual that occurs between Passover and Shavuot.

Traditional Views of Jewish Chosenness

The Bible implies that God's choice of the Jews was random; later traditions made the Jews seem deserving of this privilege.

Talmud is Not a Code of Law

In working out the ideas behind the statements of the rabbis, the Talmud serves not as a law code but as a work of Jewish legal theory.