There is an unsolved mystery at the heart of one of the most popular Jewish songs in history. Every Friday evening, Jews around the world recite the poetic prayer “Lecha Dodi” to welcome the Sabbath.

Leonard Cohen, whose death was announced last night, was one of the most explicitly Jewish popular songwriters since the ancient King David, whose Psalms he expertly imitated over a five-decade career ...

Prayers are a particularly usable form of literature. And because they are composed by human beings to answer our most intimate needs, the stock of prayers always grows and changes. One scholar, for ...