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
All That Is Solid
The Lehman Trilogy, both the novel and the play, are mythic in scale, using three generations of the Lehman family (one per section of the “trilogy”) as characters in a didactic pageant about capitalism, America, modernity—and Jewishness, which plays an unsavory role in the proceedings.
Learning Yiddish After 60
When I was about 10, I had a brilliant idea. If my parents would agree to speak only Yiddish with each other, it would just come to me without effort. I wouldn't have to learn it or study it, I would just wake up one day knowing it.
I’m Still Here
Tuvia Reubner has said he has no homeland except perhaps his poetry. A new book expands that homeland's borders.
Simon Wiesenthal and the Ethics of History
Was Simon Wiesenthal an intrepid hunter of mass murderers? Or was he in fact more of a charlatan than a hero? Tom Segev's new biography of the most successful—and controversial—Nazi-hunter raises more questions than it cares to answer.
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