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WHY THE TORAH REMAINS AN OPEN BOOK by Reba Carmel Moses received the Torah at Sinai and he transmitted it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly . . . [who] said three maxims: Be measured […]
Read Moreby Dan Grossman Discussed in this essay: Dinner at the Center of the Earth, a novel by Nathan Englander. Knopf, 2017, 276 pages. IN PIRKEI AVOT (The Ethics of the Fathers), Hillel sees a skull floating in the water and says, “Because you drowned others, you were drowned; and in the end those that drowned […]
Read Moreby Maya Haber WITH THE ARRIVAL of Tisha B’Av, we ponder the destruction of the ancient Temples and this year give thanks that Armageddon was recently averted — though just barely. On July 14, three terrorists, Arab citizens of Israel, launched an attack at the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary complex in East Jerusalem, killing two Israeli […]
Read Moreby Bennett Muraskin Discussed in this essay: The People and the Books: 18 Classics of Jewish Literature, by Adam Kirsch. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016, 407 pages. LITERARY CRITIC, essayist, and secular Talmudist Adam Kirsch is a 40-year-old Jewish intellectual with an extraordinary breadth and depth of knowledge. He has a regular column in the […]
Read MoreU.S. Out of the Middle East! by Lawrence Bush From the Spring 2015 issue of Jewish Currents IT TAKES A LEAP of the humanistic imagination to feel even a shred of understanding for radical Islamists who are terrorizing the Middle East. The alternative to making that leap, however, is simply to rage, “Let’s kill them, […]
Read Moreby Ronald Pies, MD drawing by Sarah Glidden From the Winter 2013-2014 issue of Jewish Currents “The entire purpose of our existence is to overcome our negative habits.” —Rabbi Eliyahu, the Gaon of Vilna (1720-1797) I REALLY HAVE TO BLAME MY MOTHER for the way I turned out. Coming from a psychiatrist, that […]
Read MoreAn Editorial From the Spring, 2012 issue of Jewish Currents The non-violence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached… must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey…. For if we lose that faith — if […]
Read MoreRandy Cohen has been best known since 1999 as the writer of a weekly column in the Sunday New York Times Magazine in which he responds with acuity and humor to the ethical dilemmas of real-life people. For seven years, Cohen was a staff writer for Late Night with David Letterman, for which he shared […]
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