NEW YORK (JTA) — For centuries, studying a page of the Talmud has come with a bevy of barriers to entry. Written mostly in Aramaic, the Talmud in its most commonly printed form also lacks punctuation or vowels, let alone translation. And that’s not to mention the Talmud’s size and cost: 37 full volumes, called…
The jury’s decision to execute Dylann Roof for killing nine unarmed people in a historically black Charleston church may create its own problems for the state of South Carolina. As recently as last year, Bryan Stirling, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, was deprived of the means to prepare a lethal injection cocktail,…
A prominent leader of the “alt-right” left a Hillel rabbi speechless when he drew a direct parallel between white supremacy and Zionism — igniting debate on social media about whether such a comparison has any validity. Richard Spencer, who leads the white nationalist National Policy Institute, appeared at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas on…
In an uncharacteristic, and laudable move, yesterday Hillel International cancelled Ari Shavit’s book tour of US college campuses after accusations of sexual harassment against Danielle Berrin were made public. Hillel and other major Jewish organizations, have not always been as quick on the draw. In lower profile sexual harassment cases on individual campuses, and organizations…
Tu B’Av is the quirky Jewish older brother of Valentine’s Day. Here’s what you need to know about this ancient day of love: This romantic holiday used to be the Second Temple period version of a singles mixer. Jewish women would go dancing in the vineyards, according to the Talmud, and unmarried men would go…
Every morning this summer my subway commute features roughly the same routine: Read the news and study the Talmud. From 238th street all the way to 72nd street, I am bombarded with the brutality of racism in America, and then with stories from a 1500-year-old Jewish text. Studying one page of Talmud a day, a…
After 36 years of fiercely devoted marriage, my husband and I are broke, anxious and disappointed. We hardly speak to each other, and when we do it is mostly to accuse and complain. Is it desperation, a search for solace or something more elusive that brings us to the most unlikely of places? One autumn…
Please don’t read this article if you haven’t seen Star Wars yet — it’s one big spoiler. But whether you have seen it, plan to see it, or couldn’t care less, in fact this article is about… you. “The Force Awakens” is a Talmudic film, struggling with what critic Harold Bloom has called the anxiety…
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