A few days before Yom Kippur, my thoughts settle on one of the most poignant High Holy Day prayers—the poem about the asarah harugei malchus, the 10 martyrs. A memorialization of renowned rabbis whom Roman officials murdered, the prayer takes poetic license portraying the group as martyred in a single day and also casts the 10 as victims of an absurdist…
© 2025 Menachem Wecker
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