Selection of these articles are available in book form
in

Holidays, History and HalakhahHolidays, History and Halakhah

by Jason Aronson Publishers

In Those Days, At This TimeIn Those Days, At This Time: Holiness and History in the Jewish Calendar

by University of Calgary Press

Sanctified SeasonsSanctified Seasons

by CreateSpace for the Alberta Judaic Library


Around the Calendar

  • Sabbath
    1. Tsholent
    2. Shabbat Candles: To See or Not to See"
    3. Angels on My Shoulders
    4. You Have Mail!
    5. Sabbath: To Feast or to Fast?
    6. A Fine Kettle of Fish

  • Passover
    1. Nisan: The First Month
    2. A Heavenly Herald (... and Some Housework)
    3. A Text Inscribed in Blood
    4. The Seder as a Living Tradition
    5. The Exodus of the Spirit
    6. That Remarkable Kid
    7. The Invisible Guest
    8. It Is the Season of Our Liberation
    9. The Great Passover Raisin-Wine Controversy
    10. Important Women
    11. Staging the Exodus
    12. Those Magnificent Men and Their Matzah Machines
    13. Back to Egypt
    14. "In Every Generation...": The Strange Omission in Rabbi Kalischer's Haggadah
    15. The Eggs and the Exodus
    16. Dressing for Success
    17. Hillel's Perplexing Passover Predicament
    18. Old King, New King
    19. Drip before You Sip
    20. Freshly Baked: A Matzah Mystery
    21. Thicker than Water
    22. Why Was This Haggadah Different?
    23. Children's Questions at Heart of Passover
    24. Thanks for the Mnemonics
    25. An Arrant Aramean
    26. A Kinder, Gentler Pharaoh?
    27. An Embarrassment of Riches
    28. A Seder with Solomon
    29. Seder Swordplay
    30. Who Knows "Who Knows One?"
    31. Red Sea, Reed Sea...and the Persian Gulf


  • The Omer Season
    1. New Light on an Ancient Ritual
    2. The Tragic History of the "Omer" Season
    3. Counting the Days
    4. Notes from the Underground
    5. Just a Little Bit Off the Top Please
    6. The Case of the Missing Omer
    7. Pyre, Pyre, Pants on Fire
    8. Fire from Water at Meron

  • Yom Ha-Atzma'ut and Yom Yerushalayim
    1. "Two Thousand Years"
    2. The Founding of Jerusalem: A Palestinian Midrash?
    3. Gathering the Dispersed of Israel
    4. That Old Blue Box
    5. Israel Rocks
    6. Hertz the Poet
    7. On Solid Ground

  • Shavu'ot
    1. Obadiah the Proselyte
    2. Tradition or Compassion: A Shavu'ot Controversy
    3. The Greening of Shavu'ot
    4. Akdamut, Aramaic and Ashkenazic Origins
    5. Honey from the Tablets
    6. Crowning Achievement
    7. When Mount Sinai Was Lifted Up
    8. Renewing the Covenant at Qumran
    9. The High Road and the Low Road to Sinai
    10. Pulling an All-Nighter
    11. The Rainbow Anniversary
    12. First Fruits and Forefathers
    13. Two-Tiered Torah
    14. Poetry in Motion

  • Rosh Hashanah
    1. The Day of Judgement
    2. "Into the Depths of the Sea": Tashlikh in Jewish Law and Lore
    3. Piyyut: The Poetry of Worship
    4. A Minyan for the Holidays
    5. What Year Is It Today?
    6. Dancing with the Demons
    7. Roman Holiday
    8. Where to Draw the Line
    9. Vanity, Emptiness and the Throne of Glory
    10. A Binding Disagreement
    11. Mosaic Musings
    12. Horn of Plenty
    13. Assault on the Angels
    14. Legend and Liturgy: The Elusive Tale of the Untanneh Tokef
    15. Joy or Judgment?

  • Yom Kippur
    1. The Islamic Yom Kippur
    2. The Kol Nidre Controversy
    3. The Repentance of Nineveh
    4. Yom Kippur: Encounters with the Absolute
    5. Sins in the Balance
    6. Atoning for Esau
    7. The Ibn Ezra Code
    8. Pandemonium in the Pews

  • Sukkot
    1. Hosanna
    2. Waving at the Winds
    3. I'm Bein' Followed by a Moonshadow
    4. Prince of Rain
    5. Come Gather 'Round People
    6. Torch Songs
    7. Citric Asset
    8. Just Passing Through
    9. Simhat Torah: The Rabbis and the Rabble
    10. The Mysterious Origins of Simhat Torah
    11. Mr. Pepys' Outrageous Outing
    12. The Well-Groomed Torah Groom

  • Hanukkah
    1. "The Holy Maccabee Martyrs"
    2. By the Hanukkah Lights
    3. Hellenism Revisited
    4. "Because They Were Included in the Miracle"
    5. Heroes, Hammers and Hanukkah
    6. The Maccabees' Menorah and Titus' Menorah
    7. From Gelt to Gifts
    8. The Tomb of the Last Hasmonean?
    9. The Menorah and the Magi
    10. Getting a Handel on Hanukkah
    11. Burning Issues
    12. The Wicked Hasmonean Priest
    13. A Megillah for Hanukkah
    14. Assideans for Everyone
    15. Hanukkah by Star-Light
    16. Yesterday's Hero
    17. Eight Days a Week
    18. The Priestly Kings of Salem
    19. Natural Light
    20. Debatable Dates

  • The Fifteenth of Sh'vat
    1. The Incredible Plant-Man
    2. Apples and Apocalypse
    3. It Grows on Trees
    4. Renewable Resource
    5. Reading Palms
    6. That Mysterious Fragrance
    7. Turning Over a New Leaf

  • Purim
    1. Purim, Parody and Pilpul
    2. The War Against Purim
    3. Vashti: A Feminist Heroine?
    4. Esther the Marrano
    5. Aquarian Esther
    6. Passing Through Shushan
    7. Troubles at Court
    8. The Purim-Shpiel and the Passion Play
    9. The Wise King Ahasuerus
    10. Esther and the Essenes
    11. Remembering Harbona: For Good or for Bad?
    12. Hanging Out with Vaiezatha
    13. Wall-to-Wall Purim
    14. Haman for All Seasons
    15. Stepladders and Stable-Hands
    16. Verify Your References
    17. Snap, Gragger, Pop!

  • Miscellaneous
    1. January 1st
    2. On Matriarch Rachel and Mother's Day
    3. Columbus' Medinah?
    4. Calendar Conundrums


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    Last modified: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 9:47:16 AM