Yossi begins by telling a story about when he was travelling and stopped at a friend’s house where his friend made him biscuits from 100-year old starter sourdough. Yossi relates this to selling your chametz every year before...
Ten Plagues of Modern Life
While the Ten Plagues of the Haggadah might be fun in the same way as some people get a voyeuristic kick out of Game of Thrones or a slasher movie, most of us do not seriously believe that our tap water will turn into blood, or frogs will invade our bedrooms. Still...
The Leap to Explain: Coronavirus as a Metaphor
Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other...
Podcast Episode 9: The Wicked Son
One of the centre pieces of the Seder is the section on the four sons. Both Yossi and Elliott like the “wicked son” above all. Yossi notes that according to the Haggadah, once they finish “smacking around” the wicked son, we do not hear from him again, either because...
Purim Blues: Why Using Anti-Semitism to Inspire Jewish Identity is a Bad Idea
By Dr. Elliott Malamet As the old–and by now endlessly recycled–joke would have it, the essence of Jewish history in one sentence is “They tried to kill us, we survived, […]
Podcast Episode 8: Love Me Two Times, Baby
Elliott begins by recalling how his daughter would dress up like Esther on Purim, all made up as though entering a “beauty contest.” But when you read the Megillah, the […]