Among the more bizarre (Jewish) events of our COVID days was a wedding held under a traditional bridal canopy in one of Bnai Brak’s cemeteries—a very old custom which was believed to potentially ward off the plague. Jeremy Brown explores the origins and surprising history of the unusual “Black Wedding.”

Win a year’s subscription to TRADITION’s print journal for yourself as a new or renewing subscriber or to gift to someone else by correctly predicting as many titles due to appear on our annual editorial board Summer Book Endorsements.

Today, 4 Tammuz (June 14), marks the 850th yahrzeit of Rabbenu Tam. Pinchas Roth’s review of Rami Reiner’s new book draws our attention to important new scholarship on the interpretation, halakhic legacy, and controversies of a monumental figure whose rulings and readings continue to impact Jewish law until the present day.