Home > Judaism

Judaism

Tel Aviv’s Not-So-Black Hats – Hasidic Tel Aviv

Menachem Keren-Kratz

The city that never sleeps might now epitomize secular Israel, but for decades it was the country’s Hasidic capital – and Zionist too! Menachem Keren-Kratz Shoppers on Tel Aviv’s fashionable Shenkin Street and high-tech workers...

Articleshasidic sectsHasidismIsrael Independence DayIssue 56 | March 2021RabbisTel AvivZionism

From the Archives | Too Much of a Good Thing

Yochai Ben-Ghedalia

Jews have always prayed for rain, but those in northern Italy suffered from too much rather than too little, inspiring prayers for protection from flooding Yochai Ben-Ghedalia The Mishnaic tractate Ta’anit (Fasting) devotes extensive space...

ColumnsFrom the ArchivesIssue 55 | December 2020ItalyJudaism

Rabbinic But Different – Dura-Europos Synagogue

Haggai Misgav

The people and animals in the Dura-Europos murals might reflect a community’s disregard for rabbinic strictures but can’t be seen as evidence of non-rabbinic Judaism in third-century Syria Haggai Misgav Since its discovery in 1932,...

ArtArticlesIssue 60 | February 2022JudaismRoman EmpireSyria

Imperial Synagogue – Dura-Europos Synagogue

Haggai Olshanetsky

Once upon a time in southeastern Syria, the Roman and Sassanid-Persian empires battled over a city nestled among the dunes. Its ruins revealed a synagogue with some of the most exquisite murals ever seen. Who...

ArtArticlesIssue 60 | February 2022JudaismRoman EmpireSyria

Divinely Plagued – Wolff Haggada

Yaakov Ben-Ze’ev

Identifying perhaps more with the plague-ridden Egyptians than with liberated Israel, the scribe of the prized Wolff Haggada referred readers to his epic testimony concerning the horrors of the Black Plague and how he reconciled...

ArticlesdeathIssue 47 | April 2019JudaismLiterature and CulturemedicineMedieval PeriodPesachProvencescribes

Agreeing to Disagree – Nahmanides

Oded Yisraeli

When Maimonides’ philosophical writings finally reached western Europe in a language its Jews could read, his ideas met with intense and growing opposition. Though the great Jewish leader was deceased by then, Rabbi Moses son...

ArticlesGironaIssue 62 | September 2022Jewish philosophyLiterature and CultureMedieval PeriodNachmanides

Who Invited the Rabbi? – Rabbis at Weddings

Ariel Picard

Rabbis have officiated at weddings for centuries, but the Talmud mentions no such practice. So how did Jewish clergy become an integral part of the ceremony? Ariel Picard Many human endeavors begin spontaneously but gradually...

ArticlesEuropeIssue 68 | March 2024JudaismLifecycleMedieval PeriodRabbis

Royal Convert – Queen Helene of Adiabene

Tal Ilan

Even antiquity had its celebrity culture, with intellectuals chronicling the lives of the famous. The conversion of an entire royal family to Judaism thus fascinated both the sages and Josephus, who recorded the wondrous deeds...

archaeologyArticlesconversionHerodian periodIraqIssue 65 | June 2023QueensShavuotWomen

Past Present – Ultra-Orthodox Holocaust Commemoration

Michal Shaul

Although ultra-Orthodox Israelis don’t stand as the siren blares on Holocaust Memorial Day, the memory of European Jewry’s destruction continues to shape their community Michal Shaul Looking on from the sidelines, one might think Israel’s...

20th centuryArticlesHolocaust dayIssue 69 | June 2024JudaismLand of IsraelRabbisTish'a Be'av

From Temple to Talmud – Post-Temple Judaism

Yair Furstenberg

Rabbinic Judaism is often described as having developed in reaction to the loss of the Temple and its sacrificial ritual. Certainly, the sages of the period were responding to some kind of crisis. But was...

ArticlesIssue 69 | June 2024JerusalemJudaismLand of IsraelRabbisRoman EmpireTish'a Be'av

Till Death Do Us Part – Graveyard Weddings

Sara Barnea

Two orphans are about to tie the knot. But the wedding procession leads to the local cemetery. What was behind this strange 19th-century custom, and what storm brewed in its wake? Sara Barnea On the...

19th centuryArticlesburialIssue 53 | July 2020JerusalemJudaismPre-state of Israel

Judaism

Tel Aviv’s Not-So-Black Hats – Hasidic Tel Aviv

From the Archives | Too Much of a Good Thing

Rabbinic But Different – Dura-Europos Synagogue