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Oct 23, 2024 | 
tabletmag.com | Stuart Halpern
Following humanity’s first fratricide, Cain became a marked man. Having murdered his brother Abel, he was concerned he would be subject to an avenging attack. God, having already punished Cain with exile, was sympathetic. So, Genesis 4:15—which we read this Shabbat in Parshat Bereshit—tells us, God “put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.”But what, pray tell, was the mark? A tattoo? A horn? A dog? Commentators have suggested all these and more.
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Oct 16, 2024 | 
tabletmag.com | Stuart Halpern
Though not as intoxicating as Passover, with its four cups of wine, Sukkot also boasts a trademark quartet, known as the four species. The lulav (palm branch), hadas (myrtle), aravah (willow), and etrog (citron) are held, and ritually shaken, at various points during the holiday’s seven days of prayer services. What exactly these simple items symbolize, however, has been debated for millennia.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Stuart Halpern
In 1770, amid the stirrings of what would become the American Revolution, a Jewish Pennsylvanian named Barnard Gratz wrote a letter to a friend. In it, he shared his unfiltered opinion of George III’s latest address.
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
tabletmag.com | Stuart Halpern
I’m no psychologist, but it isn’t hard to diagnose America with preelection depression that has dragged on into the dog days of summer. Perhaps the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av, which begins this year on the evening of Monday, Aug. 12, can serve as an occasion for introspection and renewal for the whole country.
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Jul 25, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Stuart Halpern
WSJ Opinion: Hits and Misses of the Week Your browser does not support HTML5 video. 0:00Paused0:00 / 2:04WSJ Opinion: Hits and Misses of the Week Play video: WSJ Opinion: Hits and Misses of the Week My family is relieved to be swapping Hamas rockets for the Bronx Bombers. My wife and I moved to Israel three years ago with our then 8-year-old and twin 4-year-olds in tow. After living in a country at war for nine months, we’ve returned to New Jersey for a few weeks, visiting relatives.
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Jul 15, 2024 | 
jewishreviewofbooks.com | Stuart Halpern |Akiva Schick |Wilfred M. McClay
New York University Press 336 pp., $35 On May 5, 1892, the insurance broker and former Civil War general Frederick George d’Utassy was found unconscious in a gas-filled hotel room in Wilmington, Delaware. He died the next day. The exact cause of death, like much of d’Utassy’s life, remains shrouded in mystery. After all, d’Utassy wasn’t his real name, and he wasn’t a real general. One of the many colorful characters in Adam D.
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Jun 29, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Stuart Halpern
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Jun 28, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Stuart Halpern
By Your browser does not support the audio tag. 00:00 / 05:17This article is in your queue. As millions of Americans celebrate our nation’s independence on July 4, many no doubt will lament the choice between a septuagenarian and an octogenarian in the upcoming election. Perhaps they can find some comfort in the fact that our oldest elder statesman, Uncle Sam, will continue to hold office long after both Biden and Trump.
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Jun 11, 2024 | 
tabletmag.com | Stuart Halpern
Who was the real heroine of the Book of Ruth? The answer might not be what you think. For those in need of a quick recap, the biblical tale—which we read on the holiday of Shavuot—begins by recounting how a small Israelite family fled the Jewish homeland for the fields of Moab in a time of famine. Following the death of the matriarch Naomi’s husband and two sons, God eventually ends the hunger, bringing bread back to Bethlehem.
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Apr 19, 2024 | 
tabletmag.com | Stuart Halpern
With Hamas still holding Israeli hostages and global antisemitism rampant, as Jewish families sit down to read the Passover Haggadah this year on Monday evening, April 22, the passage “in every generation, there are those who rise up to destroy us” will no doubt be particularly resonant.
