Jewschool

There is a story that is told in Mishnah Yoma as the origin story for why certain tasks in the Temple were assigned based on a lottery. At first, the task of cleaning the altar from the ashes and detritus of the offerings from the previous day was not assigned. Rather, whoever wanted to perform the task did it. When more than one person wanted to clean the altar, an important...

For several years, the same trollish take about the winter holidays has rattled through my head. In response to the anti-Christianity prevalent in my politically progressive, religiously traditional Jewish circles, I remind myself that, as the Bible scholar Jon Levenson observes, the menorah is a craft replica of the burning bush (thus Exodus describes it with floral and vege...

guest post by Mollie Leibowitz

Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion

Rabban Gamaliel the son of Rabbi Judah HaNasi once “saw a skull which floated on the face of the water, and he said, ‘Because you drowned others you were drowned; and in the end they who drowned you shall thems...