Modernity brought sweeping changes to the Jewish community—and prayer was not immune, not in Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, or even Orthodox communities.
Between early prayer books, kabbalistic additions, and the printing press, the siddur we have today is filled with prayers from across history.
Jews from the Land of Israel prayed differently than we do today—with marked difference. What happened to their traditions?
I’ve searched high and low for an accessible English book or essay addressing the development of the siddur, but my findings are few. This series of essays is my attempt to fill the gap.
Missing from Tanach—the Jewish People’s origin story—is one of the central aspects of Jewish life: the observance of halacha. Why?
Reform leaders argued that because of the rabbis’ strained and illogical interpretations in the Talmud, halachic Judaism had lost sight of God. Was that true?
If legal codes tell us the laws, then the Mishna is less like a legal code than a record of disagreements about the law. Why is that?
Our Sages compiled tractates on the laws of blessings, Pesach, purity, and so much more. What did they have to say about the status of the Oral Torah?
A bedrock principle of Orthodox Judaism is that we received not only the Written Torah at Sinai but also the oral one—does that mean it can’t change?
