Ilana Kurshan convinces us that the children’s classic “Caps for Sale” by Esphyr Slobodkina is among “The BEST”: Its message delivered at countless bedtimes resonates with our tradition from the Ben Ish Hai to the “mimetic tradition,” and reminds us that the experience of reading to our kids is a sacred mimicry of our parents having read to us, and back through the chain of mesora.

Chaim Strauchler profiles Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” which depicts a world where time, agency, and moral responsibility erode, symbolized by illicit gambling. Strauchler suggests that this culture of passivity mirrors today’s rise in youth gambling and reflects a broader loss of faith in cause-and-effect pathways to success. Jewish historical and contemporary parallels, from Haredi lotteries to R. Leon Modena’s Hanukka-season gambling, show how magical thinking emerges when predictable structures falter. Hanukka ultimately calls us back to courageous agency.

Alec Goldstein and Mitchell Rocklin profile Don Quixote, the first modern novel. Cervantes’ hero exemplifies the radical possibility of human self-creation, anticipating themes later explored by Kierkegaard and Rabbi Soloveitchik. Through its blend of satire, moral aspiration, and literary brilliance, the novel affirms the power of great art to elevate the mind, restore honor, and inspire generations to strive toward “the impossible dream.”

“Kuma” is a breathtaking, nearly ten-foot illustrated scroll by the late Staff Sgt. Eitan Rosenzweig, who created it when he was nineteen years old. The artwork, on display in the Bible Lands Museum, weaves together Jungian theories of the unconscious, the mythologist Joseph Campbell’s concept of the heroic journey, and imagery drawn from Western art and Jewish history. Sarah Rindner Blum, says it is a work of art that one must study rather than merely observe.