Articles by Michal Schechter

Tower of Babel: Lessons for Humanity

The story of the Tower of Babel has captivated the imagination of generations of scholars and commentators.[i] What is the purpose of this short biblical narrative, which relates the story of a people who came together to build a tower, only to then be dispersed across the earth by God? A ... Read more →

Mamzerim: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

In 1912, Shai Agnon, the famous Israeli Nobel laureate in literature, wrote his first short novel “And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight”. In this novella, Agnon writes of a man known as Menashe, who becomes reduced to poverty after his livelihood is taken away from him. Facing no other ... Read more →

A Closer Look at the Legacy of Shabbetai Tzvi

On September 14th, 1666, a man named Shabbetai Tzvi was arrested and subsequently thrown into prison by the Turkish Sultan. The most infamous false Messiah of the middle ages, and possibly in all of Jewish history, Shabbetai Tzvi was widely believed by many Jews to be the chosen Messiah. ... Read more →