To our readers:
In observance of Shavuot, Jewish Ideas Daily will not publish on May 28.

Sleepless on Shavuot

 

Two practices long associated with Shavuot, the "time of the revelation of the Law" (z'man matan Torateinu), are the enrolling of children in religious school and the marathon all-night study vigil (tikkun leyl Shavuot).

All-Nighter  Shiri Lev-Ari,  Haaretz.  Originally based on a kabbalistic concept, tikkun leyl Shavuot programs in Israel are drawing droves of Jews, both religious and secular.  SAVE

Kitniyot and Stimulants  Dan Rabinowitz,  Seforim.  Sure, it's great for Shavuot, but is coffee permitted on Passover?  SAVE

What is “Mormon Kosher”?  Linda Hoffman Kimball,  Beliefnet.  Channeling Isaiah 40, Latter-day Saint scripture prohibits "strong drink," tobacco, and "hot drinks," which have been defined since the 1830s as black tea and coffee. Caffeine is never mentioned.  SAVE

SAVE "Sleepless on Shavuot"

Among the Mourners of Zion

 

We are a nation of mourners this month, collectively observing the Jewish rituals of grief in memory of . . . well, something or other. The occasion for mourning is the Omer, which began on Saturday night; the reason for mourning is more mysterious.

The Foods of Shivah  Dorothy Lipovenko,  The Jew and the Carrot.  Ten cups of wine? Eggs? Bagels? What—and why—Jews feed the bereaved.  SAVE

Manuals for the Dying  Avriel Bar-Levav,  Sh'ma.  Historically, the work of caring for the dying predated the rituals that came to govern it. (PDF)  SAVE

Mourning, Memory, and Art  Richard McBee,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  In order to mourn, artists have long realized that it helps to be able to visualize that which has been lost.  SAVE

SAVE "Among the Mourners of Zion"

Make Yourself a Teacher

 

The meanings of "Torah" are inexhaustible, but its plainest sense is "teaching." It does not exist apart from being communicated. That circulation between human beings, and between humans and God, both gives Torah life and teaches us that Torah itself teaches life.

Talmud: The Back Story  Yehudah Mirsky,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Modern Talmud scholarship yields a story of fragmentary texts being worked and reworked into the sources we have today. Can we put the pieces back together into a coherent, compelling story?  SAVE

How Should We Read Aggadah?  Elli Fischer,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  The latest generation of scholarship digests and interprets earlier histories, memories, and traditions in a way that allows them to speak to the current moment.  SAVE

The “Snake Oven”  Aleph Society.  The oven in the famous talmudic dispute was made of separate pieces meant to be taken apart, then put together again. When the oven was rebuilt in this way, was it the same oven?  SAVE

SAVE "Make Yourself a Teacher"

Hitting the Jackpot

 

Who doesn't like Purim? Besides the costumes and candy, the story itself has all the politics, sex, and violence of a juicy HBO series. In case you missed it: "Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy the Jews, and had cast a pur—that is, a lottery—with intent to crush and exterminate them."

Israel New Lotto  thelotter.com.  Information and instruction about how to invest, as Rabbi Avraham Shapira would view it, in Israel's national lottery.  SAVE

I Won the Lottery Because I Donated to Synagogue  Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu,  Israel National News.  Now here's a return on investment . . . .  SAVE

Randomness and Revelation  Ely Merzbach,  Bar Ilan University.  According to one mathematics professor, the principle of probability allows God to intervene in human affairs without contravening the natural laws that God Himself created. (PDF)  SAVE

SAVE "Hitting the Jackpot"

View More in Halakhah

Insight & Analysis

For Better or for Purse  Michael J. Broyde.  Jewish Press.  The "Halakhic Prenup" is a real solution to the agunah problem. Now it needs to be adopted beyond Modern Orthodoxy.  SAVE

If You're Reading This, You're Part of the Problem  Micah Stein.  Tablet.  It took 750 buses, a few boats, the involvement of 28 state agencies, and a baseball stadium rented for $1.5 million; but 40,000 men gathered to affirm the dangers of the Internet.  SAVE

Judaism's Sexual Revolution  Dennis Prager.  Crisis.  When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into heterosexual marriage, it changed the world—and made Western civilization possible. (1993).  SAVE

Homosexuality and Halakhah  Michael Gold.  MyJewishLearning.  What do traditional Jewish sources actually say about homosexuality?.  SAVE

Cancelling Conversions  Shlomo Brody.  Jerusalem Post.  Fraud? Sin? A romantic link to a Gentile? Under what circumstances can a conversion to Judaism be annulled?.  SAVE

Facebook and Organ Donation  Gil Student.  Torah Musings.  Very few rabbinic authorities would allow for the blanket consent to donate organs implied by the new Facebook status.  SAVE

The Stranger in Our Midst  David Ellenson, Daniel Gordis.  Times of Israel.  Even if we cannot eradicate the complexity of our tradition's attitude to conversion, we must understand the pain it causes for those who seek to join us.  SAVE

The Weekly Portion

Mishpatim: Hebrew Slaves and their Masters

 

Exodus 21:1–24:18

By Moshe Sokolow

 Hebrew Slaves Masters Egyptians laws bondage desert

"Should you purchase a Hebrew slave [eved ivri], he shall labor for six years and go free, gratis, in the seventh." This week's portion commences with a topic that is of poignant and almost eerie pertinence in this period of upheaval caused by economic straits, when many Jews have increasingly been compelled to depend on communal and philanthropic welfare. How does a Jew become a slave? And can another Jew become a slave master?

Continue Reading "Hebrew Slaves and their Masters"  Moshe Sokolow,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  SAVE

SAVE "Mishpatim: Hebrew Slaves and their Masters"

Powered by eResources