If the current Israeli government were in power back in biblical times, there is a good chance that there would actually be no State of Israel today in need of governing. This is the message of a ...

What defines Judaism and the Jewish people? Ethnicity/Race? Or Religious Culture and Practice? The Book of Ruth, that we read in a couple of days on Shavuot, provides a complex answer. It’s a ...

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Thanks for all the excellent e-mails about the Song of Songs. Several of you argued that the maiden’s “navel” is not her navel, if you get my (southward) drift. My brief research didn’t settle the ...

With a touch of divine providence, the debate about illegal immigration is heating up just as Jews prepare for Shavuot. The two-day festival starting the evening of June 1, called Pentecost in English ...

The symbolism of Ruth arriving in Beit Lechem at the beginning of the barley harvest is robust. The barley harvest begins on the second night of Pesach, the first day of a newly redeemed Israel. A ...

Editor’s Note: Laura Bernardini is director of coverage in CNN’s Washington Bureau. The views expressed in this column belong to Bernardini. I am one of the luckiest people in the world to have grown ...

In ancient days, in the land of Moab, a young girl named Ruth often felt like a stranger among her people. She felt different from her family and from her friends. Her closest friend, a girl named ...

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