Noah Millman
Tamar, Helen, and Love’s Ambition
What can Shakespeare’s most unlikely love story tell us about Tamar’s "bed trick" and the fate of the Jewish people?
Us or Them
It all started with a tweet: “Curious about your whiteness? Come to our meeting.” Edelman was curious.
The Danish Prince and the Israelite Preacher
Hamlet, Shakespeare’s most peculiar tragedy, echoes one of the most peculiar books in the Hebrew Bible, Ecclesiastes. It also helps us understand its wisdom.
Sitting with Shylock on Yom Kippur
The poet Heinrich Heine imagined the merchant of Venice attending Neilah, the final service of Yom Kippur, but I find him earlier in the day, at Mincha, and we are listening together to the story of another Jew among Gentiles, bitter at being compelled to show mercy.
Hidden Faces and Dark Corners: Megillat Esther and Measure for Measure
What happens when the hidden is revealed? Reading Megillat Esther alongside one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays” shows that question to be at the heart of Purim’s paradox.
Upon Such Sacrifices: King Lear and the Binding of Isaac
How Shakespeare helps us think about the akedah, and vice versa.