Jewish Treats

Respect For the Environment

Tu b’Shevat, the Jewish new year for trees, is a great opportunity for Jews to devote themselves to environmental causes.

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Jewish Treats

What Is the Tree of Life?

In the Garden of Eden, which was teeming with all the wonderful flora of creation, God placed two special trees:  Etz Hada’at  (the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil) and …

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Jewish Treats

Resource Sharing

June 5 has been declared World Environment Day by the United Nations. In honor of this year’s theme, “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care,” Jewish Treats presents a brief…

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Jewish Treats

Mosquitoes No More

There are few insects as disliked as the mosquito. When people wonder about the purpose of annoying bugs, the mosquito is the first one whose existence they question. (As a point of…

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Jewish Treats

The Cedar and the Hyssop: A Lesson In Humility

One of the most challenging categories of Jewish law is the one associated with lashon harah (which literally means ‘evil speech’ and refers to gossip and slander). What is assumed…

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Jewish Treats

Under The Apple Tree

Today is National Pie Day, and if you base fact upon popular idioms, then America’s favorite food would be apple pie. It may be true, or it may just be a reflection of the fact that…

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Jewish Treats

What’s in the Book – Zechariah

Like many of the later prophets, the Book of Zechariah has more prophecy than narrative. The first prophecy of Zechariah occurs during the second year of the reign of King Darius…

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Jewish Treats

Tu b’Av and the Offering of Wood

Tu b'Av, the fifteenth of Av, was celebrated in ancient times by unmarried maidens who went out on this day to dance in the vineyards hoping to be chosen by an unmarried youth to be his…

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Jewish Treats

How To Be Holy

God instructs Moses to tell the Jewish people: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). How does one make oneself holy? The remaining 35 verses of…

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Jewish Treats

Thoughts on Shevat

Although the Torah implies that Abraham and his descendants are removed from the fate of the stars (based on Genesis 15:5, Nedarim 32a) - meaning that their personal destinies are not…

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