Yoma 71

After a full day of costume changes, ritual immersions, lotteries, sacrifices, blood sprinklings, confessions, mysterious moments in the Holy of Holies, and much more, the high priest’s day comes to an end. The mishnah on yesterday’s daf tells us that the high priest would mark the end of Yom Kippur with a feast for his […]

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Yoma 70

The Jewish month of Tevet always begins during Hanukkah. But when the first of that month also happens to be Shabbat, it’s a busy day in synagogue.  As Rabbi Titzhak Nappaha says on today’s daf: When the new moon of Tevet occurs on Shabbat, we take out three Torahs: From one, we read the topic of the […]

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As Israeli swimmers took 4th place in an Olympic trial, a TV commentator criticized their country

(JTA) — Standing poolside in Barcelona, Eden Blecher and Shelly Bobritsky beamed with pride and satisfaction as they struggled to catch their breath. The two athletes from Israel on Sunday had just clinched the fourth slot in the Women Duet category of the Artistic Swimming Qualification Tournament in that city in Spain, assuring their participation […]

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A Jewish Prayer for Juneteenth

Juneteenth is an American holiday celebrating the end of slavery. This prayer reflects on the core story of the Jewish people — the Exodus from Egypt — which impels us to fight slavery everywhere. It celebrates the milestone of emancipation of Black American slaves, even as it acknowledges that there is much work still to […]

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Eternal Return

Discussed in this essay: Voices in the Evening, by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by D.M. Low. New Directions, 2021. 144 pages. Family and Borghesia, by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Beryl Stockman. NYRB Classics, 2021. 128 pages. THERE IS PERHAPS no greater archivist of the family lexicon than the Italian novelist Natalia Ginzburg. As she recounts in […]

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