Articles

The Book That Returned from the Dead For centuries, Pesikta de-Rav Kahana – one of the most remarkable works of rabbinic literature – simply vanished. Now scholars are piecing it back together, and discovering what it reveals about how ancient Jews responded to crisis and loss By Alex Stein

Leah Goldberg: A Life in 10 Facts One of the most celebrated Hebrew poets of the modern era, Leah Goldberg was a writer for adults and children, a translator, playwright, painter, literary scholar, and cultural critic. Behind the iconic name lies a remarkable and often surprising life story. Here are 10 fascinating facts about Goldberg and her work By BAC Staff

Parashat Balak: To Hear and To See Balaam’s donkey saw the angel; Balaam could not. When we cannot see what another person sees, we grow angry. Our values and beliefs become metaphorical blindfolds. The deepest rifts between people arise simply because we are looking at different realities By Lior Tal Sadeh

Tu B’Av You Didn’t Know In modern Israel, Tu B’Av is celebrated as a holiday of love – the Jewish Valentine’s Day. But its origins run far deeper: the end of the spies’ punishment, the lifting of the ban on Benjamin, the opening of the road to Jerusalem, and much more. Ten facts about Tu B'Av By Dudu Cohen

Back to the Future How can we go back and repair the past? Repentance and time through the lens of the sages and existentialism, with Prof. Avi Sagi By Noa Sorek

Parashat Chukat: Death as a Gathering Station The Torah speaks of rewards and punishments, but never mentions the world to come. Yet the phrase “gathered to his people” hints at a belief in the afterlife so deep it needed no teaching By Lior Tal Sadeh

Between the Highest Heavens and the Human Depths Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s Keter Malchut soars from God’s unknowable nature to the structure of the cosmos, before plunging into human despair and the plea for divine mercy. Dr. Ariel Zinder guides us through this towering masterpiece of Hebrew literature By Alex Stein

When in Rome Defeated on the battlefield, the rabbis found another way to fight back – using midrash to absorb, subvert, and ultimately out-argue the most powerful empire in the world By Alex Stein

Parashat Korach: Gifts and Corruption The priesthood was given as a gift – an honor requiring no payment. But when gifts became livelihoods, corruption followed. From ancient priestly hides to modern campaign contributions, exploring how gifts transform from blessings into bribes By Lior Tal Sadeh

The Moral of the Story How the printing press turned Hebrew morality tales into a Jewish cultural phenomenon – and what they reveal about virtue, vice, and collective memory By Gilad Halpern

The Other Side of Tchernichovsky He’s one of the giants of Hebrew poetry, but behind the verse was a military doctor, a man rejected from jobs in Israel for having a gentile wife, and a poet who spent his final days in a Greek Orthodox monastery. Here are ten things you probably didn’t know about Shaul Tchernichovsky By BAC Staff

Parashat Shelach: The Wood Gatherer Setting an Example While the Israelites are in the desert, an anonymous man caught gathering wood on the Sabbath is summarily condemned to death by God. Ostensibly a sinner, could he have acted for the sake of Heaven? By Lior Tal Sadeh

Same Words, Different Worlds Jews and Christians share many of the same biblical texts, yet often find radically different meanings within them. Biblical scholar Marc Zvi Brettler explores how centuries of interpretation shaped those divergent readings – and what each tradition can learn from the other By Alex Stein

Parashat Behaalotecha: Leadership as Partnership When the people of Israel voice their complaints, however understandable, they raise God's ire. His overreaction is owing, perhaps, to different interpretations of the relationship between leaders and their flock By Lior Tal Sadeh

Parashat Naso: About the Monk Is the nazarite holy or a sinner? One view sees spiritual elevation in voluntary restriction. The other sees arrogance in rejecting permitted pleasures. Two fundamentally different worldviews about material life and spiritual growth By Lior Tal Sadeh