I Believe: A Poem

Please remember, contestants, to phrase your answer in the form of a question.

—Alex Trebek, host of Jeopardy!™

I believe with a perfect faith in the coming of the messiah, though he may tarry.
—Late medieval reformulation of Maimonides’ 12^th Principle of Faith, Commentary to the Mishna, Sanhedrin, Perek Helek.

In the days of the Messiah, each individual will perfect his soul to its root, and the holy sparks will ascend from their husks, which will become entirely null.
—Restatement of a key doctrine of Lurianic Kabbalah by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (1753–1825).

I believe, with a perfect faith, that the messiah will

be a Jeopardy champion,

whose answers, phrased as questions, will raise sparks of memory
from husks of forgetfulness,

and return us to ourselves.

Ruthless Cosmopolitans

Adam Kirsch

Susan Sontag kept saying hello to George Steiner, louder and louder, as he stared out the bus window refusing to answer. More or less standard behavior for both of them . . .

The Wizard of Words and the Baggy Monster: Rereading Amos Oz’s <i>A Tale of Love and Darkness</i>

Fall 2020

The Wizard of Words and the Baggy Monster: Rereading Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness

Ruby Namdar

Israelis made Amos Oz a cultural symbol—almost a fetish—of who they thought they were or fancied themselves to be. But their adoration wasn't unconditional. Oz's editor, literary scholar Yigal Schwartz, called Israel’s unbalanced relationship with Oz a “bipolar reading disorder."