Open Search form

Judaism

Apply for a Blog

Allen S. Maller

Jul 28, 2026, 8:21 AM

Why ‘Jacob’ When God Changed Jacob’s Name To Israel

Why do we still say "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” even after God has changed Jacob’s name to Israel. If we look at the “big picture,” Jewish survival is perhaps the greatest miracle of all Jewish history....

Allen S. Maller

Jul 27, 2026, 4:19 PM

From Ongoing Time Judaism to Wide World Spread Islam

Why Hebrew-Jews (Genesis 14:13) were able to survive as the only ongoing monotheistic religion for about 15 centuries, when none of the other hundreds of pre-Abrahamic prophets' monotheistic religions could not I do not know. But while the Jews...

Jul 27, 2026, 12:41 PM

Judaism is Not a Religion

It has been awhile since I took to these pages. This past March the Ayatollah Kohmeni sent ballistic missiles to Israel which unfortunately kept us from attending our grandson’s bar-mitzvah in America. My beautiful wife and I took the...

Michael S. Diamond

Jul 27, 2026, 4:18 AM

The Archive of Forgetting and Undoing

I have registered my maps in The Archive of Forgetting and Undoing. The walls to the Holy City have been breached in this month of the Babylonian god who at Summer’s zenith dies, the faithful son, and returns with the rains of Winter and Spring dew, ransom for his goddess sister, Lady of the Date Clusters. Perhaps...

Jul 25, 2026, 9:47 AM

Pigs are widely regarded as among the most intelligent domesticated animals. Photo © Mercy For Animals (MFA), Los Angeles, USA, 2011. Licensed under CC BY 2.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

How One Forbidden Animal Became the Symbol of Kashrut This article continues the series: Fins and Scales, Hooves and Cud Kashrut Through the Lens of Information Theory: The Hidden Logic of Redundancy If every fish with scales also has fins, why does the...

Allen S. Maller

Jul 24, 2026, 7:55 PM

Do Jews Really Worship Ezra?

Long before Daesh (Islamic State) began murdering thousands of woman and children in order to establish God’s right order in the world, Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073-1085) got the massacre ball rolling. Upon assuming the papacy in 1073, Pope...

Jul 24, 2026, 9:09 AM

Shabbat Nachamu: Two Forms of Comfort and Consolation

The opening words of this week’s haftarah are among the most comforting in the Bible: “Comfort, oh comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and declare to her that her term of service is over, that her...

Shmuly Yanklowitz

Jul 23, 2026, 11:43 PM

No, We Don’t Eat Kosher Meat Either.

Photo by U.Lucas Dubé-Cantin on Pexels. Copyright free.

What I’m about to say may surprise you, given that I am a rabbi who keeps strictly kosher in accordance with the Orthodox halakha I live my life by, but sadly, the current state of kosher eating (“kashrut”) is...

Jul 23, 2026, 6:28 PM

The First Commandment (Va’etchanan, Covenant & Conversation)

One of the most profound disagreements in Judaism is the one between Moses Maimonides and Judah Halevi on the meaning of the first of the Ten Commandments. For Maimonides (1135-1204), the first command is to believe in God, Creator of...

Walter Estever Gonzalez

Jul 23, 2026, 5:51 AM

The Boy Everyone Called Calavera

A Salvadoran mother offers a meal to a young soldier during the country's civil war. AI-generated illustration based on the author's recollection.

I no longer remember his real name. Everyone called him Calavera—the Spanish word for "Skull." His real name disappeared long ago, but the nickname remained. That’s how memory sometimes survives war: it forgets names but refuses to let go...

Load more