Jofa Recent Media

Song of Riddles: Deciphering the Song of Songs

By Tammy Jacobowitz For those privileged to grow up with Bible study as a steady companion, the Bible’s distance from the sensibilities, assumptions, and conditions of our world may take ...

Torah Lishmah: For Women’s Sake

Camp was over, the children were being picked up by their anxious parents, and we, the exhausted staff, were finally relaxing a little. “So what are you up to now?” asked ...

On Leaving Academia and Embracing Torah

I no longer consider myself an academic. I have a Ph.D. in rabbinic literature and I use the tools I got from academia every day in my teaching and writing ...

Hanukkah

The Prohibition of Working While the Candles Burn

by Bruria SpraragenRonda Angel Arking, Editor Hanukkah today is one of the most well-known and commercially promoted holidays. We do not think of Hanukkah as a new holiday; each family ...

Rosh HashanahTishrei

Our Four Sacred New Years

by Nomi Kaltmann Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year that takes place each year in Tishrei involves an abundance of ritual and preparation. We blow the shofar; we eat symbolic ...

Sukkot

Succot and Hakhel: The Point of Re-entry

by Gila Sacks [1] It was an extraordinary moment, and it would have been happening this Succot: At the end of every seven years, after the sabbatical year, on the ...

Sukkot

On Permanence and Impermanence: Reflections on the Sukkah

By Erin Leib Smokler [1] The holiday of Sukkot is famously one of joy. The Torah exhorts us “וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֖ בְּחַגֶּ֑ךָ,” “You shall rejoice in your festival” (Deuteronomy 16:14). It then ...

High HolidaysRachel RosenthalShema BekolahYom Kippur

Our Prophets, Ourselves: Jonah, Judgment, and the Act of Repentance

By Rachel Rosenthal[1] If one were to name sympathetic characters in Tanakh, it is unlikely that the prophet Jonah would make the list. If ever there were a model for ...

PassoverShema BekolahYaffa Epstein

Pesah— Hag HaHinukh: The Holiday of Education

By Yaffa Epstein[1] Jewish tradition has four names for the Passover Holiday—Hag HaAviv (the Spring Festival), Hag HaMatsot (the Holiday of Unleavened Bread), Hag HaPesah (the Holiday of Passing Over), ...

Gila SacksHanukkahShema Bekolah

Creating Light Each Day

by Gila Sacks[1] “Mai Hannukah?”[2] famously asked the rabbis of the Talmud: “What is Hannukah?” It is the asking of this question, more than its answer, that highlights the complexity—and ...

High HolidaysShema Bekolah

Change We Can Believe In

by Aliza Sperling[1] The High Holiday period is punctuated with the theme of change. But how many times can we hear about change during the High Holidays without becoming cynical? ...

agunotDivorcejewish divorceJofa JournalRuth Halperin-Kaddari

SOLUTIONS TO THE AGUNAH PROBLEM: BARRIERS AND BACKLASH

By Ruth Halperin-Kaddari This article comes from a place of frustration and pain. I am afraid I do not bring a message of optimism. On the contrary, my article stems ...

Sukkot

The Sukkah—A Temporary Fortress

By Mia Diamond Padwa [1] Chag-ha-Sukkot, the holiday of Sukkot, as it appears in the Torah, is grouped with two distinctly different clusters of holidays. On the one hand, it ...

Idana GoldbergWedding

My Wedding: The Choices I Made

By Idana Goldberg “Ani mekabelet tabaat zu, v’hareini mekudeshet lecha kedat moshe v’Yisrael, I accept this ring and I am thereby sanctified to you according to the laws of Moses ...

Blu GreenbergMarriage

From Our President Modern Marriage, the Jewish Way

By Blu Greenberg So this is our June bridal issue. And why not, for as Orthodox feminists we have a lot to say about marriage and all that it should ...