Open Search form

Emotion

Apply for a Blog

Jun 26, 2026, 6:49 PM

What Cannot Be Mourned Cannot Be Forgiven

How grief becomes grievance—and what communities can do about it. The title of this essay is not a metaphor. It is a description of something that happens — in families, in communities, in nations — when loss has no legitimate...

Jun 23, 2026, 2:09 PM

I Left NYC for Tel Aviv. It Was the Best Decision I Ever Made.

Author Sophie Mendel

I left my life in New York City in search of community and belonging—in Tel Aviv, I found it. One year ago I decided to leave New York City and move to Tel Aviv. In the wake of October 7th...

Jun 21, 2026, 6:15 PM

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love K-Dramas

My daughter kept plugging a Korean historical drama on Netflix about a cooking competition, and I couldn’t understand the appeal. I’m a reader, and not much of a cook. Why would I waste time on a fantasy cooking show in...

Jun 9, 2026, 11:15 PM

The Israel I Heard on a Mountaintop

John Boyd Thacher Park in New York's Helderberg Mountains. (Photo Credit: "Discover Albany"--https://www.albany.org/listing/john-boyd-thacher-state-park/1967/)

In June 1967, a high school friend and I spent six consecutive nights driving from our homes in Albany, New York, to the top of John Boyd Thacher Park in the Helderberg Mountains. We arrived just before midnight carrying...

Jun 2, 2026, 10:11 AM

Why Time Feels Faster as We Age

Time feels faster as we age — same years, different density. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Theories of Time Perception and a Life-Remaining Model In Life Remaining: Rethinking Time and Perspective, I explored a simple question: Instead of asking “How old am I?”, what if we asked “How much life do I actually have left?” Using life expectancy...

May 15, 2026, 4:43 AM

Love as Law, Law as Love (Bamidbar, Covenant & Conversation)

On the face of it the connections between the sedra and haftara of Bamidbar are slender. The first has to do with demography. Bamidbar begins with a census of the people. The haftara begins with Hosea’s vision of a...

Isaac Steven Herschkopf

May 5, 2026, 12:38 AM

An Argument Against Arguing: Spitting in the Wind

"It is a absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing." - The Usurpations of Reason, John Henry Newman (1843) For the entire 19th century, and most of the 20th, it was considered rude to express one's opinion about...

Apr 24, 2026, 3:22 AM

Of Love and Hate (Acharei Mot – Kedoshim)

At the centre of the Mosaic books is Sefer Vayikra. At the centre of Vayikra is the “holiness code” (chapter 19) with its momentous call: “You shall be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” And at...

Ella Ben Emanuel

Apr 4, 2026, 11:49 PM

What the War with Iran is Teaching Me

my punch embroidery

As the days of peacetime blur into forgetfulness, I begrudgingly sink into this new normal of alerts, sirens and check-ins. The irony is that with all the arrow missiles and ballistic warheads moving at the speed of sound, I’ve...

Mar 25, 2026, 7:19 PM

Tending the Eternal Flame: Parshat Tzav

THE CONSTANT FIRE: BEYOND RITUAL TO RESPONSIBILITY We expect to see in any synagogue an ark, a place for the Torah reader (the bimah), and a ner tamid, the eternal light. Often, additional symbols—such as the Ten Commandments, the twelve...

Load more