by Rabbi Yisrael Rutman In Roman times, it was customary for candidates for public office to don a spotless white toga as a sign of their good character. The Latin word for “dressed in a white toga” was candidatus. By the seventeenth century, the word candidate began appearing in English to describe political aspirants regardless
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The current issue of Commentary magazine features Abby Wisse Schachter’s “The Problem with Purim,” a defense of the traditional Purim story against its feminist critics. “Purim has been transmogrified into a feminist holiday,” writes Schachter in her survey of the decades-long effort at feminizing Megillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther. The “problem,” as they see
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