What Donald Trump Gets Right about Israel and the Arabs
The Middle East has too often been a screen onto which outsiders project their own psychodramas.
October 17, 2019
The Etrog’s Magical—and Literary—Power
In Ashkenazi folklore, the fruit was a charm for fertility.
One of the four species of plant that are ritually waved on the holiday of Sukkot, the etrog (citron) often has a small protrusion, known in Hebrew as a pitom, on the side opposite the stem. Some rabbinic authorities prize an etrog with a pitom; others maintain that an etrog without one is preferable. Among East European Jews, the feature was bound up with various folkways and superstitions, which in turn became fodder for Yiddish writers, as Rokhl Kafrissen explains:
Subscribe to Continue Reading
Get the best Jewish ideas and conversations. Subscribe to Tikvah Ideas All Access for $12/month
Login or SubscribeOctober 17, 2019
A New Biography Distorts History to Defame Ben-Gurion
Israel’s first prime minister was no enthusiast of ethnic cleansing.
Alienating Arabs, and a Last-Minute Campaign for Video Cameras at Polling Centers, May Have Cost the Likud the Election
Lessons for the Israeli right.
Moses Mendelssohn, Idolatry, and Baseball Cards
Mistaking the sign for the thing itself.
The Etrog’s Magical—and Literary—Power
In Ashkenazi folklore, the fruit was a charm for fertility.