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After death, creation: Simchat Torah in the shadow of October 7

We finish the Torah with mourning and immediately go back to the beginning, refusing to let destruction have the final word

A group of Kfar Aza evacuees gathered in a group hug for the Priestly Blessing (Oct. 19, 2023)

Yonatan Cohen

A blessing of love: Recalled

I raised my hands in the Priestly Blessing countless times, but I felt like a fraud. I didn’t feel blessed myself, until a friend restored the love underneath it all

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir in the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, March 19, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Yair Zivan

The coming storm

The country’s global standing has never been worse. Without a change in government, Israelis will soon feel it in their wallets, travel and security

(Art by Sefira Lightstone, www.sefiracreative.com)

Judy Klitsner

Our new delicate Simchat Torah dance: A time to weep, a time to rejoice

When our feet move in rhythm, but in heavy steps, and our voices rise in song, but crack with the weight of memory, the community will help warm the chill of absence

Students lead prayers outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence in Manhattan, September 18, 2026. (Ramaz school via Facebook)

Avi Weiss

‘If I am not for myself, who will be for me’ still comes first

As Jewish students challenged Mamdani’s antizionism at a prayer vigil, I saw the sage Hillel’s teaching come to life: We cannot forget ourselves when we care for others

In this December 28, 1962 file photo, anti-Stalinist poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko speaks during a reading of his poetry in Moscow's Tschaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. (AP Photo)

How a poem let Soviet Jews remember in public

Sixty-five years ago, Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s ‘Babi Yar’ put into print a history Jewish families had been forced to carry in private

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a ceremony at the monument to Jewish victims of Nazi massacres, at Babyn Yar in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, September 29, 2021. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Yevgen Korniychuk

Babyn Yar: When history becomes a battlefield

Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel: ‘The Jewish people know better than many others how dangerous it becomes when a lie is repeated so often that it begins to be accepted as truth.’

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Oct 2, 2026, 12:22 AM

The Bible: Human and Animal Souls are Equal

As the Torah annual reading cycle resumes on Simhat Torah with Genesis 1, the animal world begins to emerge with God creating “every living creature” – or “nefesh ha-khayah” as in the Hebrew, namely, ‘ensouled' animal (Gen 1:21). On...

Chaim Y. Botwinick

Oct 2, 2026, 12:13 AM

A Miracle within Miracles during Z’man Simchateinu on Flydubai Flight 1073

Yesterday, September 30th, was Chol Hamoed Sukkot. The 5th day of Sukkot 5787. We were all sitting in our fragile sukkot, as HaShem demonstrated to 174 Israeli passengers and acheinu bnai yisrael exactly what a sukkah really is. While we watched in...

Judith Sinclair-Cohen

Oct 2, 2026, 12:11 AM

Remembering Enid — One of a kind

At Enid's funeral last week on Tuesday, as the Chevra Kaddisha came forward to take her to burial, an older man with a long grey beard stepped up to the microphone. I had taken him for one of them....

Oct 1, 2026, 11:29 PM

What Sukkot Knows About the Mental Load

For 51 weeks, the home lives in a woman's head. Jewish law gives men one week to find out what that feels like. In the summer of 2006, my wife and I stood in front of a small, tired apartment....

Oct 1, 2026, 11:27 PM

After FZ1073, Europe Spoke in Different Voices

The passengers, the captain, and the cabin crew of Flydubai flight FZ1073 are heroes. When catastrophe threatened, they acted. They fought back, helped regain control of the aircraft, and saved lives. What happened afterward was less straightforward. European capitals struggled...

Oct 1, 2026, 11:25 PM

The Jewish Stories Behind This Year’s Paris Fashion Week

This week, the fashion world turns its attention to Paris. From September 28 through October 6, designers are presenting their newest collections at Paris Fashion Week. There are celebrities, journalists and social media influencers in the front rows, new trends...

Oct 1, 2026, 10:57 PM

When the Sukkah Becomes a TARDIS

On AI, Moral Purity, and What We Do With Powerful Tools It all started when my friend Rabbi David Seidenberg made a post comparing the sukkah to the TARDIS. Attached to the post he included an image of a TARDIS-sukkah that...

Maximillian Hollander

Oct 1, 2026, 10:40 PM

Shemini Atzeret: A Lost Holiday of Holding

For my father, Jewish practice was about family. The son of immigrants who were always working to build their new lives in America after the Holocaust, Shabbat and holidays were often the only opportunities my father had to spend quality...

Alexandre Gilbert

Oct 1, 2026, 10:38 PM

Romain Blandre Interview | Alexandre Gilbert #347

Romain Blandre has been a history and geography teacher at a middle school in Mulhouse for 20 years. Since 2017 he has served as the relay teacher (professeur-relais) for the Strasbourg education authority (académie de Strasbourg) at the European...

Oct 1, 2026, 10:35 PM

The Power of Love on Sukkos

The Sages teach that there is a subtle but profound difference between the effect of teshuvah which is motivated by fear of God (teshuva mi’yirah) and teshuvah which is motivated by love for God (teshuva me’ahava). Fear-driven teshuvah can...

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