One of the main practices of the holiday of Sukkot, which begins at sundown tonight, is dwelling in a sukkah, or booth. Naturally, rabbinic tradition sets forth numerous prescriptions for how a sukkah must be constructed, including minimum and maximum dimensions, for which the unit is a tefaḥ, or handbreadth. In the past century, various rabbinic authorities have argued for conversions from this and other biblical and talmudic measurements into modern units. Some ancient jars may settle this question once and for all:

In an extended television interview with an Arab broadcaster, Prince Bandar bin Sultan—who served for twenty years as the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., for a decade as head of the Saudi National Security Council, and two years as intelligence chief—responded forcefully to the Palestinian claim that the Gulf states have, by normalizing relations with Israel, “stabbed the Palestinians in the back.” Defending Saudi devotion to the Palestinian cause, Prince Bandar delivered a lengthy history of his country’s role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, in which he bluntly upbraided Palestinian leaders, and Yasir Arafat above all, for squandering chances at statehood and for their lack of “ethics.” While Bandar’s sentiments can hardly be described as pro-Israel, he asserted that the Palestinian leaders are every bit as responsible as the Jewish state for the plight of their people: