The tradition has always been bigger than any one person’s grip on it. What draws me is simple: I think these texts are a good part of why we are still here as a people. I want to know them and, in my own way, embrace them. Orthodox is where I turn.
Without the longing and passion that come with failures and mistakes, without the introspection required by repentance, one cannot become the best possible version of themselves.
In a world that often tells us to care less in order to hurt less, Judaism offers another path: never care less.
In both, there’s sacrifices, there’s tribal identity, there’s a concern for honor and dignity. And then there are these huge, glaring differences
On Tu b’Av, the full moon rises. The same people who mourned begin to dance. The same nation who splintered begins to seek one another out again in the vineyards, in the fields, in the moments of vulnerability and return.
In this enriching new edition of the classic code of Jewish law, readers can delve deeply into the mind of Maimonides, from his analysis of the commandments to the controversies that have accompanied his writings, offering a window into the wisdom of one of our tradition’s preeminent thinkers.
You Can’t Always Get What You Want came out the year after I was born.
The 9th of Av is an annual reminder to look inward and ask if any hatred has taken root within our hearts.
