By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Whether to impose strict interpretations of biblical laws or create loopholes to ease Jewish life so the population would not discard those laws as too onerous: that summarizes one of the difficulties the ancient rabbis faced when discussing rabbinic law. The many l…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Once upon a time, romance novels focused on bringing two people together in married bliss with the action usually stopping either just before or after the wedding. Few featured women who wanted something more from life than a husband or who faced problems or difficu…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Books for tweens
My original plan for this review was to group books in order by age (teen first, then tween, followed by picture books), but I couldn’t wait to write about “Max in the House of Spies” by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton …
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
A holy ecology
“The Song of Songs” is one of the most difficult biblical books to understand and interpret. Its poetry is so vague that readers not only debate who is speaking at any given time, but what those words actually mean. Over the centuries, the book…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
There’s a joke about Jewish holidays that says, “They tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat.” When thinking of recorded Jewish history, that statement could be changed to read, “They invited us to live there. We prospered, so they hated us and tried to destr…
