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In 1919, when Kramer painted The Day of Atonement, modernist art depicting Jewish rituals was considered new and radical, especially in tradition-bound England. When the Jewish community of Leeds…
In the new religious revival, the theologians and philosophers have it easy; they can battle about the nature of revelation endlessly in the pages of Commentary. Parents and householders, on the other…
בָּרוּךְ הַמָּקוֹם בָּרוּךְ הוּא. בָּרוּךְ שֶׁנָּתָן תּוֹרָה לְעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל. בָּרוּךְ.הוּא: כְּנֶגֶד אַרְבָּעָה בָנִים דִּבְּרָה תוֹרָה. אֶחָד חָכָם. וְאֶחָד רָשָׁעוְאֶחָד תָּם. וְאֶחָד שֶׁאֵינוֹ יוֹדֵֽעַ לִשְׁאוֹל…
For the wrong we did before You by listening to voices at odds with what we knew was right;
For the wrong we did before You by not listening to voices telling us unpleasant truths;
For the wrong we…
Mah Tovu notes our coming into the house of God, symbolized by the words “tents” and “tabernacles.” Mah Tovu begins with a passage from the Torah (Num. 24), in which the pagan prophet Balaam blesses…
Rosh Hodesh is celebrated only eleven times a year. Tishre, the month Rosh Hodesh coincides with Rosh Hashanah, is omitted. If Rosh Hodesh falls on two days, the ceremony may…
“But what is dayenu? What is sufficient for us?” asks the Wise Daughter.
Dayenu
If Eve had been created in the image of God
and not as helper to Adam,
it would have sufficed.
Dayenu.
אִילוּ נוֹצְרַה…
The creator of the popular ritual of placing an orange on the Seder plate describes exactly how this innovation arose, its intended significance, and the problematic erasure of its origins.
The distinction between religious and secular music is not universally admitted. There is a considerable group of people, some of them very learned in the art and science of sound, who claim that…
Adonay,
Our people have called You Monarch of the universe.
Help us who live without a monarch on a throne
To perceive Your sovereignty
In the royal splendor that pervades the universe,
In the holy…