!זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק... תִּמְחֶה אֶת־זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח “Remember what Amalek did to you… You must erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. Do not forget!” —Deuteronomy 25:17-19 These verses rest at the center of Shabbat Zachor—the Shabbat before Purim—which we dedicate to remembering the sneak attack upon the Israelites perpetrated by Amalek, shortly after our people’s deliverance from Egypt. The timing of this ritual stems from Haman’s Amalekite ancestry, as the Book of Esther describes him as an Agagite (Agag is mentioned as King of the Amalekites in the first book of Samuel). The command here in Deuteronomy poses a significant challenge. How does one blot out the memory of another while simultaneously memorializing their treachery? Frequently, we associate crimes with their perpetrators, which can make acts of malice feel more remote than they should. Once we have identified a transgressor—be it the [...]

This Shabbat, Jews throughout the world read Vayikra, the first chapters in the Book of Leviticus. Beginning with verbose descriptions of sacrificial offerings, followed by descriptions of daily life for priests, then the measures undertaken by the community to achieve holiness, and finally a series of laws designed to govern life in the community, Leviticus can easily seem impenetrable to the modern reader. After all, the entire first half of the book addresses ritual sacrifice, which is no longer part of Jewish practice (and thankfully so!). Nevertheless, our ancestors’ now-outdated method for communicating with God imparts a pivotal lesson that often seems missing from modern religious dialogue. In order to cultivate a relationship with the Divine, we must give up something precious. We must sacrifice. For our ancestors, these sacrifices came from their prized herds and flocks. For the modern Jew, these sacrifices come from our most precious resource of all—time. [...]

...עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל רַבָּנָן וְעַל תַּלְמִידֵיהוֹן וְעַל כָּל תַּלְמִידֵי תַלְמִידֵיהוֹן “Upon all Israel, upon all its teachers, and upon all their students, as well as the students of their students...” — Kaddish D’Rabbanan As part of Women’s History Month, the National Archives Museum develops opportunities to discover women from American history who have helped shape our nation. Tomorrow, the museum presents author Mary Sarah Bilder, who looked to the 1780s to investigate the rise of female intellectualism in the English-speaking world with her book, “Female Genius,” which explores the life and contributions of Eliza Harriot O’Connor. As George Washington waited for the Constitutional Convention to begin in Philadelphia in 1787, he sat in on a lecture delivered by O'Connor—the first female public lecturer in the Americas—at the University of Pennsylvania. She and other reformers believed that the absence of female education was solely responsible for female non-participation in governance. Though her [...]