By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
When I was in rabbinical school, we read several scholarly articles about whether the ancient Jewish population had been influenced by the Greek culture of its time. The material was very easy to summarize: even though the authors used the same evidence, some said G…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Fantasy novels offer their authors a number of world-building possibilities that shape and inform their plots and characters. This allows them to include a variety of supernatural elements in their works since they are not restricted to the physical rules of our uni…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Confession: I have the best time reading books for teens, tweens and young children. That’s partly because there were few Jewish books for this age group when I was young. However, there is another reason I find these works so appealing: they are usually easy to r…
By Rabbie Rachel Esserman
The discovery of the BRCA1 gene has greatly affected many women’s lives, particularly those with a family history of breast cancer. Now they can test to see if they have a genetic tendency toward the disease and make educated decisions. Gila Pfeffer, the author o…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Minhag hamakom: the local custom or tradition. Minhagim (the plural) are sometimes said to outweigh halachah (Jewish law). While originally not commanded, they are often treated as if they were given at Mt. Sinai. However, as Rabbi Zvi Ron, Ph.D., notes in his thoug…
