mag

Holy Shit
I thought: What would the rabbis say about the giant inflatable colon? As a colon cancer survivor, will I ever see shit as just shit again?

Et Tu, Almonds? On Guilt and Eating
Meanwhile I forgive you, my beloved almonds, for not being harmless; I am not harmless either.

This Way to the Gas Chambers, Ladies and Gentlemen (Auschwitz 2003)
It occurred to me that one is always imagining how one could live in Auschwitz. But almost everyone died in Auschwitz.

Getting to the Good Place
Can moral philosophy get Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani to the Good Place, or do we need to talk, first, about salvation?

Dream State in Sturgis Library
The story threads written so long ago still tied us to the world out there, like spider silk unspooling across the moat.

Lamentations
Why do some of us have to witness and bear the destruction of a world—a destruction that we did not make?

Bloomsday
In the home I grew up in, we consider all books sacred. When someone accidentally drops a book or grazes one with a foot, we place our hand on the cover and gently touch our closed eyelids.

Blossoms (Hadeish Yameinu)
How do I reclaim a holiday of liberation when I feel like I’ve spent the last year entrapped by a frightening cloud of uncertainty?

All in the Interfaith Family
Susan Katz Miller talks about “how to be the most joyful and creative and successful interfaith family you can be, whatever that looks like.”

Meditating with My Father’s Friends
We were all there for the same purpose—to understand our own suffering and maybe find some relief.

Even Religious Freedom Victories Harbor Defeats
How a 1927 Supreme Court case helps us understand today’s controversies over travel bans, border walls, and executive orders.

Dear Flannery
Letters to friends, God, and Ms. O’Connor. Republished in honor of Briallen’s first book, Hard To Love: Essays And Confessions, out today from Bloomsbury.