Mixed Multitudes
Wise Fridays: Sins and Lizards
The rabbis told this story: In a certain place there was a lizard which used to injure people. They came ...
A Flower of Ashkenazi Frizz
In her last blogs, Joanna Smith Rakoff wrote about some of her favorite books.In the months preceding its publication, Jean ...
Did Noah Have Cute Galoshes?
There are so many stories in the Bible that I (among many people) have a hard time believing as truth.A ...
Ending Kaddish on Tisha B’Av
In a few hours we begin mourning the destruction of the Temple. Tisha B’Av is considered the saddest day of ...
Matchmaker, Make Me A Millionaire!
Coming up on August 5th is Tu B’Av, (the 15th of Av), a Jewish day for matchmaking and love. According ...
The Tagged Tanakh
When user-testing the Tagged Tanakh, the Jewish Publication Society’s attempt to user-navigate the Bible, my first reaction was, this is ...
Tish Above
Growing up, I didn’t really know what Tisha B’av (It was pronounced Tish Above) was. I did get the sense ...
The Smell of Old England
In her last blog, Joanna Smith Rakoff wrote about a family “more identifiably old American than Jewish.”Here in the U.S., ...
Jews, God and Videotape: An Interview With Jeffrey Shandler
America in the 20th century saw an explosion of technology that was unprecedented. People, whether they were comfortable with it ...
Joanna Smith Rakoff: Parallel Lives
In her last blog, Joanna Smith Rakoff wrote about how, in her own way, Jane Austen wrote about being an ...
Tisha B’Av, Music, and Starbucks
Rabbi Reuven Hammer sees much present relevance to what Jeremiah had to say about the destruction of the first Temple ...
David Berman’s The Portable February
David Berman, poet and former lead singer of the Silver Jews, has always been four parts poet to one part ...