Talk of the Table // Parsnip
Getting to the Root of Parsnip’s Unlikely Magic
Ask the Rabbis // Conversion
How do you decide when a candidate for conversion is ready to become Jewish?
Hanukkah Lights // Andy Borowitz
The First Hanukkah
By Andy Borowitz
Illustrations by Noah Phillips
When Billy Zylberberg thought about his childhood, he realized that Hanukkah would have meant more to him if...
Talk of the Table // Latke
Growing up by the sea in Belle Harbor, New York, five decades ago, I never heard of a Hanukkah doughnut. In my Ashkenazi family, Hanukkah fare was potato latkes, served with sour cream and my mother’s freshly made applesauce, or as an accompaniment to brisket.
Talk of the Table // Olive Oil
It’s the time of the year when we begin to talk about oil. Not just the kind that heats homes, but the kind that burned in the Tabernacle of the Temple—that is, olive oil.
Fiction // Lecha Dodi
Lecha Dodi // According to tradition, Mordechai led the way. When the day was expiring, he emerged from his house in white garments. The cares of the working week fell away, and he prepared with discreet joy for the Sabbath. His hair, just visible under his head covering, would be moist from immersion in the ritual bath.
Ask the Rabbis // Arrogance
Are there aspects of Judaism that encourage arrogance—or that help guard against it?
Ask the Rabbis // Happiness
Should Jews strive to be happy?
INDEPENDENT
No. Jews should never strive to be happy.
Happiness should not be something to strive for. It should be solidly entrenched...
Ask the Rabbis // Sin
“In contrast with other views, we are not born sinners, but by virtue of the human condition and our free will, we are bound to act sinfully from time to time.”
Ask the Rabbis | Gun Control
We ask our rabbis, “Should Jews be for or against the right to bear arms?”
Test-Tube Burgers: Holy Cow?
In Genesis, God granted humans dominion over animals. In modern times, that dominion has spawned one of the planet’s biggest threats: a livestock industry that spews greenhouse gases, guzzles resources and renders the lives of billions of animals brutish and short. Last August, vexed by the problem, a Dutch physiologist named Mark Post came up with a solution: a burger no cow had to die for. He called it the “test-tube burger.”