"A truly beautiful letter," writes the Israeli artist Izzy Pludwinski in his new book, "The Beauty of the Hebrew Letter," "will possess a dynamism, an internal lifeforce." "Letters," he adds, "are the ...

Deep within the barren mountains of Sinai lies Serabit al-Khadim, a forgotten temple where turquoise fueled the wealth of pharaohs and the goddess Hathor was worshiped as Lady of Turquoise. Among the ...

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The Jewish mystical tradition comes to the fore in these two novellas, which chronicle scholarly quests into the dusty vaults of history and memory. In "Ladies and Gentlemen," musicologist Isaac Gantz ...