Articles

Remembering to cherish: From Station Eleven to Jerusalem

TU B'SHEVAT THOUGHTS Jews who grew up in the Southern Hemisphere, as I did, have something in common: We are used to Jewish holidays...

Sukkot 5784 The holiday of Sukkot is supposed to be the merriest day in the Jewish calendar. It is also the holiday of togetherness and...

Rosh Hashana 5784 Anosognosia is one of the most perplexing mental conditions. The term was first used in 1914 by French neurologist...

Tisha B'Av 5783 I grew up on a myth: that the Jewish Revolt against Rome was virtuous and heroic; a fight for freedom led by saintly men....

Shavuot 5783 The famous song “My Way”, popularized by Frank Sinatra, is problematic. For starters, the music belongs to a 1967 French...

Israel has two major memorial days: Yom Hazikaron—the remembrance day for fallen soldiers of Israel and Israeli terror victims—and Yom...

Passover 5783 The concept of “learned helplessness,” coined by psychologist Martin Seligman, became the cornerstone of his groundbreaking...

Let’s face it, on Purim we Jews look pathetic. Yeah, I know, it’s supposed to be a happy holiday in which we were miraculously saved, but...

Tu Bishvat 5783 At this time of the year, three years ago, I wrote about Stav Harari and Dean Shoshani. They were both 25 and had just...

Sukkot 5783 While generally not a fan of dystopian fiction, I recently fell for one such book: “The Second Sleep” by Robert Harris. A...

Rosh Hashanah 5783 The Anton-Babinsky Syndrome has puzzled doctors since antiquity. It’s a rare condition in which the patient has lost...

Rosh Hashanah 5782 Who would we be if we had made different choices? If we’d told that secret, left that relationship, written that book?...

Tisha B'Av 5782 I thought about Tisha B’Av recently, as I stood in Jerusalem’s Davidson Archeological Park (thank you, William Davidson...

Shavuot made me a Zionist. Well, maybe it wasn’t just Shavuot, but that holiday played an important role. Why? Because when you grow up...

Passover 5782 Tell me honestly: Are you anticipating your Passover seder with excitement or dread? Do you really want to meet all your...

Purim 5782 The synagogue of “El Tránsito” in Toledo, Spain is among the oldest and most beautiful in the world, with a sanctuary...

Chanukah 5782 Mythical stories in all cultures, which developed mostly before literacy was common, rely on portentous and unusual images...

Sukkot 5782 The novelist Milan Kundera noted that the difference between a path and a highway is that a path is “a strip of ground over...

Tisha B'Av 5781 The word “horizon” is tricky. We generally refer to the horizon as an indication of expansiveness, even limitlessness....

Shavuot 5781 According to Midrash, all the souls of the future generations were present at Mount Sinai the moment the Torah was given. As...

If you have a European or Middle Eastern heritage and you grow up in the Southern Hemisphere, you suffer from permanent cognitive...

Ridiculousness is one of the central characteristics of Purim. On this holiday, we are not afraid to be silly and absurd. We don funny...

It takes just 13 seconds to chop down a tree with an ax. If you must know, New Zealander David Bolstad holds the world record of...