Wearing White for Shabbat
It is a well-known custom that Jews wear white on Yom Kippur in order to reflect the purity of angels on that holy day. It is a lesser known custom that Jews wear white at the Passover…
Terumah-Purim 5761-2001
"Amalek, Purim and the Mitzvah of Getting Drunk" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This coming week's parasha, parashat Terumah, coincides with Parashat Zachor, the special reading from…
Pinchas 5770-2010
"The Colorful Biography of Pinchas" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald At the end of last week's parasha, we learned that a prominent couple performed a lewd act in public in order to directly…
Shavuot 5770-2010
"The Gift that Keeps on Giving" by Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald Because of the holiday, the theme of this Torah message concerns the festival of Shavuot, rather than the weekly Torah portion,…
Kiss the Mezuzah
One might easily think of the mitzvah of mezuzah as a passive mitzvah. Simply recite the blessing before affixing the mezuzah to the doorposts of the house, and it is done. While affixing…
Counting on You?
Every nation seeks to know how many citizens it has, which can also inform the nation of the quantitative strength of its armed forces. In democratic countries, counting the nation also…
Can Hermit Day be Celebrated in a Group?
October 29th is celebrated as Hermit Day, lauding those who prefer to spend time by themselves rather than socializing with others. However, some point to Hermit Day not as a lifestyle,…
Earthshattering Moments in One of Israel’s Holiest Cities
Tzfat (Safed), the Israeli city in the rolling hills of the Galilee, is known as one of the four holy cities of Israel, along with Tiberias, Hebron and, of course, Jerusalem. It was the…
Kiss the Mezuzah
One might easily think of the mitzvah of mezuzah as a passive mitzvah. One simply affixes it to the doorposts of one’s house while reciting a blessing, and it is done. While affixing a…
Reincarnation
Reincarnation is a word that to most Jews screams of foreign cultures. What is not common knowledge, however, is that the reincarnation of souls is a concept found in Judaism (although…