Purim is a topsy-turvy holiday. By encouraging us to invert the norms of communal behavior, Purim teaches us the boundaries of those norms. Take the

Leave it to Hebrew to have two ways of saying 'gesundheit.'

Jean-Paul Sartre, in his existentialist play No Exit, posits that what you have actually done—not what you have been—is what defines your life. In Hebrew,

According to humorist Ephraim Kishon, when Israelis are asked לַעֲמד‭ ‬בַּתּר (la-amod ba-tor), to stand in line, there are always a “privileged few” who consider

Let’s take 18 minutes—the halakhic time limit for baking kosher-for-Passover matsot—to talk about roots related to the word matsa.

The first legal case one studies in Talmud class reads like a rather contemporary allegory. It involves two litigants invoking the principle of “finders, keepers.” Each petitioner, claiming

Have you heard about the latest Hanukka miracle? Some bakeries in Israel are claiming that  סוּפְגָנִיּוֹת (sufganiyyot), jelly donuts, are healthful. We won’t go into

The Hebrew root kallal or kal, means easy, simple or light.