Talmud

Should Jews pray for a miracle when death is inevitable?

Rather than abandon prayer in the face of tragedy, Judaism asks us to deepen it. We do not pray to overturn nature but to find strength within the divine natural order.

 IS IT appropriate to pray for miracles?
 An American battalion arrives in Ostersund, Sweden after driving across the border from Norway, to attend the Defence exercise Aurora 23, April 17, 2023.

American strength lies in preservation of history, not in destruction - opinion

 Haredi Remembrance Day ceremony at the Teddy Hall in Binyanei Ha’uma in Jerusalem.

Thousands complete Talmud at Haredi Remembrance Day ceremony in Jerusalem

 An illustrative image of someone reading the Talmud.

'Rabbinic Scholarship': How the Talmud Yerushalmi was made - review


Eight fascinating Jewish news stories from 2024 that you might have missed

From antisemitism in Spain to J.D.'s Jewish chief of staff, explore the fascinating stories about Jews that you may have missed over 2024.

 Frank London, standing, works with a team of musicians at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, New York, May 22, 2024.

Maccabean war vs long-lasting oil: What is the true essence of Hanukkah? - opinion

The Talmud says that on Hanukkah, we celebrate the miracle of the oil. Secularists claim the essence of Hanukkah is to celebrate the Maccabean victory.

 An illustrative image of a Hanukkah menorah (hanukkiah) being lit in Israel.

This Yom Kippur, we must jump the barricades and become a unified Jewish state – opinion

We must find it in ourselves to connect with God and each other, whatever it takes.

Children evacuated from Germany on the Kindertransport in 1938/1939 are given candies in Southampton, England

Yom Kippur: Finding hope in times of uncertainty

To embrace, simultaneously, the unknown alongside the knowable has indeed given us the strength and courage to find hope.

 FREED HOSTAGE Sapir Cohen holds up a poster of captive partner Sasha Alexander Trupanov at an Evening of Unity at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, New York City, Aug. 27.

Hadassah University Medical Center solves biblical mystery with ancient seed

The first 2,000-year-old date seedling was named Methuselah (after the longest-lived person in the Bible) and is now impressively tall at Ketura.

 DR. SARAH SALLON (right) and Dr. Elaine Solowey at  Kibbutz Ketura.

This week in Jewish history: The start of the IDF draft and the Daf Yomi cycle

A highly abridged version of the daily Dust & Stars.

 CELEBRATING SIYUM HASHAS, the completion of the ‘Daf Yomi,’ a seven-and-a-half-year cycle of studying the Talmud, at Har Etzion Yeshiva.

Jewish texts permit celebrating the death of enemies - opinion

If Rabbi Boteach does not want to rejoice at the demise of one of humankind’s evilest men, that is his prerogative, but the Jewish sources as they actually appear give the green light.

 Demonstrators pray near a mock coffin during a protest against the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, in Lebanon's capital Beirut, August 2, 2024.

'The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic': Gila Fine’s fine book on women in the Talmud  - review

Gila Fine’s The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic reexamines Talmudic women, challenging stereotypes and offering fresh, scholarly perspectives on their roles and stories.

 Author Gila Fine.

Meet the teenaged girl who read the Talmud in two-and-a-half years

Though women have been historically forbidden or discouraged from learning the Talmud, Elke Bentley's family has always supported her pursuit of Torah study.

 Elke Bentley, 18, completed reading the Babylonian Talmud in just two-and-a-half years.

The red heifer: A statute with a cause - opinion

As a people bound to our Jewish texts, we question and delve into the unknowable to understand our relationship to God and mitzvot more fundamentally.

 The red heifers brought to Israel from Texas.

Newly discovered link between Hercules, Israel suggests cultural exchange in region - study

2,800-year-old stamp in Tel Hazor connects Hercules to northern Israel, depicting a hero battling a seven-headed serpent, reflecting Levantine visual culture and myth transmission complexities

 The scene depicted on the surface of this black-figued amphora shows Heracles and his servant Ialous fighting the Lernean Hydra and the giant crab. Behind the hero the goddess Athena.