Life & Religion

Ritual & Observance

Pilgrimage

Each year before Rosh Hashanah, thousands of Jews visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. Rodger Kamenetz joined them and brought along a friend: Franz Kafka.
By God & Co.

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Food

Market Value

With Rosh Hashanah falling earlier than usual, a chef offers holiday dishes built around late-summer produce
By Melissa Petitto | 7:00 AM Aug 31, 2010

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 ...

Family

In With the In Crowd

‘Inclusive’ education—when special-needs students share classrooms with other students—benefits all kids
By Marjorie Ingall | 7:00 AM Aug 30, 2010

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 & Observance

High Holidays 5771

Collected Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur coverage
By Tablet Magazine | 7:00 AM Aug 29, 2010

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 ...

Ritual & Observance

Haters

A haftorah of strong emotions and long views
By Liel Leibovitz | 7:00 AM Aug 27, 2010

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, ...

Sex & Body

Breeding Ground

In a graphic memoir and an online video, two women channel anguish over infertility into art
By Holly Lebowitz Rossi | 7:00 AM Aug 26, 2010

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 ...

Family

Eat, Pray, Love Your Brother

The Julia Roberts blockbuster—and the Elizabeth Gilbert memoir it's based on—get the prayer part all wrong
By Marjorie Ingall | 7:00 AM Aug 23, 2010

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 ...