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Death and Mourning: Sources from the Babylonian Talmud

On attending to mourners, anticipating dying, accepting death, and appropriate burial rites.

The Personal is Communal

Events in the "calendar" of the lifecycle are private, yet connect us to the "unseen presences" of missing family members and our entire people throughout history.

God Language and Liturgy

Jewish feminists imagine and address God in a multiplicity of ways, both innovative and traditional.

Philip Roth

A review of the Jewish satirist's long career in fiction.

Novelists in the Nineties

In the 1970s, literary critics predicted the demise of the Jewish American novel. A talented group of novelists proved them wrong.

Kabbalistic Tu Bishvat Seder: Part 2

Evil in the world is symbolized by fruit at the seder.

Kabbalistic Tu Bishvat Seder

For Jewish mystics, nature is a sacred text.

Kabbalistic Tu Bishvat Seder: Part 3

In Jewish mystical thought, the Tu Bishvat seder became a time to atone for sexual impropriety by blessing, eating and meditating on the symbolism of fruit.

Every Person is a Tree

The Biblical law protecting fruit trees during war provides an opportunity for Jewish exegetes to reflect on ecology and the wanton destruction of life.