Today is Tisha B’Av, (the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av), regarded as the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates Rome's destruction of the holy Temple in Jerusalem, and the massacre of one million, one hundred thousand Jews by sword, fire and crucifix. The Romans sewed the fields with salt so that nothing could grow for generations. Jews were driven from their homes to wander through the long, hateful Diaspora in which they suffered in every land for the next 2,

I have a bone to pick with poet Matthew Zapruder in the July 10 New York Times Book Review. In his article “Understanding Poetry is More Straightforward Than You Think,” Zapruder tries to champion the accessibility of poetry. I applaud his intent, but he refutes Harold Bloom, whom I consider one of the great intellectuals of our time, because Bloom held that allusiveness is essential to poetry. As a rabbi, maybe it's my affection, respect and sometimes devotion to Hebrew s