Judaism
A selection of recent articles on this topic
Sabbath Deification
Israel gathers at Sinai on the third day of the third month after leaving Egypt (Exod. 19:16).…
What Bibi and Orban Can Shake On
If a geopolitical observer had predicted a decade ago that Israel and Saudi Arabia would one day…
The Real Modern Anti-Semitism
A Brezhnev-era joke asked whether it was a crime to say that the party chairman was an idiot.…
Godly Politics
Americans on the political right and left have had concerns about our presidents and their monarchical tendencies.…
Why Does Religion Need Commandments?
What is the point of the myriad commandments governing every aspect of a Jew’s life? Why does…
Judaism, Christianity, and First Things
The Edgardo Mortara episode is a stain on the Catholic Church. Whatever one thinks about the efficacy…
Chronicles as Political Theology
First and Second Chronicles recount the history of the Davidic kings of the kingdom of Judah. It’s…
Jerusalem, Above Our Chiefest Joy
Jerusalem was last a recognized capital city exactly 830 years ago, when in 1187 the Crusader Kingdom…
Everything Is Outside the Text
Rémi Brague famously described Europe as having an “eccentric identity.” He meant that Europe’s culture is one…
The Parson and the Talmud
This is the first installment in a new biweekly series, in which the First Things junior fellows…
The Jew’s Lament
The Jews’ saddest day is the Ninth of Av, which this year is Tuesday. During a fast…
The Humility that Jerusalem Brings
Lots of people have been reflecting on the Six Day War this month: the combat, the diplomacy,…
Thoughts on the Western Wall, Fifty Years Later
Photographs can capture exceptional moments in an iconic way, making the original experience “present” emotionally as well…
Ivanka, Jared, and the Jewish Sabbath
The media frenzy surrounding President Trump has included reports about his daughter and son-in-law’s observance of Jewish…
Going Benedict, Orthodox Jewish Style
In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, characters “go Galt” by disappearing into a valley, Galt’s Gulch, when society…
