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’ 12th 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.
Suggested Reading
Thinking About Revolution and Democracy in the Middle East: A Symposium
Since January of this year, revolution has spread across North Africa and the Middle East with such velocity that predicting exactly what will happen next is probably a fool's errand. In this issue, we have asked seven writers to return to their bookshelves and tell us what books, authors, and arguments they find helpful in thinking through the causes and implications of these surprising events.
In Giorgio Bassani’s Memory Garden
If you visit Ferrara, Italy, you can let Giorgio Bassani be your melancholy guide as you stroll along “the crowded rows of stores, shops and little outlets facing each other” to arrive at the synagogue’s “baked-red facade.”
More than the Old New Antisemitism
Reviel Netz responds to Jonathan Karp.
Pancho Villa and the Star of David Men
When the Young Men's Christian Association began offering wholesome recreation to soldiers in 1916, Jewish leaders were as as worried about evangelism as they were about bars and bordellos.
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