Articles

A Poet for Our Time: Celebrating 150 Years of Shaul Tchernichovsky At Beit Avi Chai’s annual Hebrew Book Week program at the President’s Residence, poetry, music, study, and conversation revealed why Shaul Tchernichovsky’s voice continues to resonate in Israel today By Noa Sorek

Halacha and Morality Aren’t Meant to Clash Four medieval Jewish philosophers – Maimonides, Sa’adia Gaon, Judah Halevi, and the little-known Isaac Polqar – saw no real conflict between Jewish law and morality, even where modern eyes might perceive one By Alex Stein

Parashat Masei: City of Refuge An accidental death demands justice – but what kind? The City of Refuge teaches that intention matters as much as action. From ancient law to modern courts, examining how we balance responsibility, forgiveness, and the complexity of human error By Lior Tal Sadeh

Parashat Pinchas: Between Zealotry and Peace Phinehas commits an act of zealotry and is rewarded with a covenant of peace. Elijah kills false prophets and later comes to make peace. A paradox reveals itself: a zealot strong enough to draw clear lines is capable of genuine peace By Lior Tal Sadeh

The Book That Returned from the Dead For centuries, Pesikta de-Rav Kahana – one of the most remarkable works of rabbinic literature – simply vanished. Now scholars are piecing it back together, and discovering what it reveals about how ancient Jews responded to crisis and loss By Alex Stein

Leah Goldberg: A Life in 10 Facts One of the most celebrated Hebrew poets of the modern era, Leah Goldberg was a writer for adults and children, a translator, playwright, painter, literary scholar, and cultural critic. Behind the iconic name lies a remarkable and often surprising life story. Here are 10 fascinating facts about Goldberg and her work By BAC Staff

Parashat Balak: To Hear and To See Balaam’s donkey saw the angel; Balaam could not. When we cannot see what another person sees, we grow angry. Our values and beliefs become metaphorical blindfolds. The deepest rifts between people arise simply because we are looking at different realities By Lior Tal Sadeh

Tu B’Av You Didn’t Know In modern Israel, Tu B’Av is celebrated as a holiday of love – the Jewish Valentine’s Day. But its origins run far deeper: the end of the spies’ punishment, the lifting of the ban on Benjamin, the opening of the road to Jerusalem, and much more. Ten facts about Tu B'Av By Dudu Cohen

Back to the Future How can we go back and repair the past? Repentance and time through the lens of the sages and existentialism, with Prof. Avi Sagi By Noa Sorek

Parashat Chukat: Death as a Gathering Station The Torah speaks of rewards and punishments, but never mentions the world to come. Yet the phrase “gathered to his people” hints at a belief in the afterlife so deep it needed no teaching By Lior Tal Sadeh

This Story Will Have a Happy Ending As Tisha B’Av approaches, Rabbi Meesh Hammer-Kossoy draws on rabbinic stories of destruction and martyrdom to ask: how did our ancestors transform catastrophe into meaning – and what can they teach us after October 7? By Alex Stein

Between the Highest Heavens and the Human Depths Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s Keter Malchut soars from God’s unknowable nature to the structure of the cosmos, before plunging into human despair and the plea for divine mercy. Dr. Ariel Zinder guides us through this towering masterpiece of Hebrew literature By Alex Stein

When in Rome Defeated on the battlefield, the rabbis found another way to fight back – using midrash to absorb, subvert, and ultimately out-argue the most powerful empire in the world By Alex Stein

Parashat Korach: Gifts and Corruption The priesthood was given as a gift – an honor requiring no payment. But when gifts became livelihoods, corruption followed. From ancient priestly hides to modern campaign contributions, exploring how gifts transform from blessings into bribes By Lior Tal Sadeh

The Moral of the Story How the printing press turned Hebrew morality tales into a Jewish cultural phenomenon – and what they reveal about virtue, vice, and collective memory By Gilad Halpern