Give Them A Choice
There is an oft-cited Midrash (Sifrei, Dvarim 343) describing how God offered the Torah to the other nations of the world before He gave it to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.…
The Littlest Mountain
When the Israelites were gathered at Mount Sinai, God gave them the Torah. Scholars and academics have spent lifetimes debating the exact location of Mount Sinai. The Sinai peninsula is…
A Different Set of Loaves
There are several well-known connections between the holiday of Passover and the holiday of Shavuot. The most obvious of these is that the celebration of Shavuot is dependent on the count…
A Sephardi Gaon
Because of the dedication of Rabbi Ezra Attiya (1885-1969), hundreds of Sephardic Jews chose to extend their education, scores decided to dedicate their lives to Torah study and dozens of…
A Constitutional Congregation
What does the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania have to do with the oldest synagogue in that state? Congregation Mikveh Israel (Originally Kaal Kadosh Mickve Israel) was founded in the 1740s…
Heroes of Israel
In most countries today, the traditional means of honoring military heroes is through the awarding of medals. In 1948, as the fledgling State of Israel fought for its very survival, there…
Flag of Israel
The Israeli flag was specifically designed with stripes to recall the image of a tallit - the Jewish prayer shawl. Its top and bottom blue stripes are reminiscent of the sky and…
Israel’s Memorial Day
The State of Israel's independence, as well as its continued survival, is a modern day miracle. But, it has come at great cost in human lives to its citizens. (There have been over 24,293…