“Two Pairs”

A nostalgic recollection of the narrator’s bar mitzvah contains hints to the author’s biography—his religious upbringing, his abandonment of traditional observance, and his return to pious practice as he returns to the Land of Israel in midlife. Here the visceral nature of the Jew binding tefillin on hand and head makes the performance of the ritual a symbol for a life of traditional observance, evoking the yoking of oneself to the divine command—how the Jew is tethered to it while often struggling to untie its cords.

This series takes place IN PERSON at Agnon House, 16 Klausner Street, Jerusalem (no Zoom broadcast).

Rabbi Jeffrey Saks is director of research at Jerusalem’s Agnon House.