There is a joke about the Jewish calendar that goes something like this, “While sitting in synagogue, one man turns to his friend and says, ‘When is Hanukkah this year?’ The other man smiles slyly and replies, ‘Same as always: the 25th of Kislev.’ ” It’s a joke, but it makes an important point: The ...

As I write this, kids are going back to school almost everywhere but in New York City. The first day of school isn’t until September 8 here, and thanks to Rosh Hashanah, our second day isn’t until September 13. I think our last day of school this year will be around Tisha B’Av.
Something else is ...

Ritual and Observance:

Rosh Hashanah: A Guide for the Perplexed: Everything you ever wanted to know about the holiday, by the Editors
My Education: What I learned about myself and my family by leading High Holiday services at UCLA, by Mayim Bialik
Blow, Gabriel, Blow: Learning about the shofar, then trying to play one, by Vox Tablet
Books:
Pilgrimage: Each ...

Our youthful selves, it sometimes seems, exist in our minds primarily to mortify us. We inhabit the present, dignified and mature, when all of a sudden a wraith emerges from the bowels of the past and disturbs our subtle sophistication with an icy whisper of youthful folly.
A while back, to name but one terrifying example, ...

In Genesis, Sarah laughs out loud when she overhears God telling Abraham she will conceive a son at the “withered” age of 90.
In the book of Samuel, Hannah weeps and prays for a son, becoming so overwrought that the temple priest thinks she’s drunk.
Laugh or cry. Like the matriarchs before them, artist and ...

I would rather sit on a stoop in the rain than see Eat Pray Love. In fact, I did just that. Last weekend, my kids were attending a drop-off birthday party at a movie theater, which not only spared me from having to sit through Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore but allowed ...