by Chana Borrow '26 Growing up, I thought I understood the Passover seder. It was simple: tell the story, eat dinner, find the afikoman ....

by Chanchkie Slavin '26 I wonder what it means to be free? We talk about it, celebrate it, even dedicate a whole festival to it. But what...

On the seventh day of Pesach, we will read "Shirat ha-Yam" (the Song of the Sea) marking a joyous celebration within the Exodus. At this...

by Ariel Wolgel '26 What can we say when sorry just isn’t enough? How might we proceed when we cannot find the words to move through...

by Rabbanit Dr. Devorah Schoenfeld '19 Mishlei 3:19-20 describes wisdom as a primordial force that existed prior to creation: The LORD...

by Shoshana Jakobovits '26 The beginning of the book of Shemot is absolutely breathtaking: the burning bush, ten plagues, the Exodus from...

by Lilinaz Evans '27 One of the most striking moments in parshat Ki Tissa is the intimate, direct communication between God and Moshe....

Rava said, “A person is obligated to become intoxicated on Purim until they are unable to distinguish between ‘cursed is Haman’ and...

by Jennifer Zukerman '28 When I was about seven years old, my mother asked me to see if the mail had been delivered. I returned to report...

by Zan Alhadeff '27 How did Moshe know how to design the mishkan? God gives Moshe lengthy instructions, from detailing the building...

by Sarah Pincus '26 At the end of this week’s parsha, Bnei Yisrael famously exclaimed “na’aseh v’nishma–we will do and we will listen.”...

by Sophie Stern Greenbaum '28 The other day I asked my son, “Moshe, if you could time travel back to any time in history, where would you...

by Susan Hornstein '25 Sometimes, especially when life feels tough, we become hyper-focused on the troubles and miss things that are...

by Yehudit Mazur-Shlomi '27 When we encounter a “natural phenomenon” that defies the laws of nature, how do we react? Do we marvel at the...

by Rabbi Rina Krautwirth In the first few verses of Parshat Va'era, we encounter a pivotal moment in Jewish history: The beginning of...

by Ilana Gimpelevich '26 Parshat Shemot opens with a review of the entire household of Yaakov descending to Egypt. Coming on the heels...

by Emily Bell '27 Thomas Bell, my grandfather, died at home after many long months of hospice care at the age of 82. I was 18 years old....

by Sarah Kaufman '25 We’re used to seeing long lists of names in Bereishit, most typically in the early genealogies of humanity. If...

The rabbis of the gemara understood that creating the holiday of Chanukah was not a simple choice. Instituting a brakha on lighting...

In our last essay , we unpacked a debate between Ramban and Rambam about how to understand Birkot ha-Shachar. Are those brakhot  like a...