Jewish Treats

The Eternal Study

In just over a week, Jewish people around the world will celebrate the festival of Shavuot, a holiday that marks the Jewish people receiving the Torah. For well over 3,000 years now, the…

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Jewish Treats

A Twentieth Century Jewish Poet

In honor of National Poetry Month, Jewish Treats presents a brief biography of Muriel Rukeyser (December 1913-February 1980). Born and raised in New York City, Rukeyser attended Vassar…

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Jewish Treats

Ethics of the Fathers

Ethics - it’s a big word in our day and age. Between political corruption and financial misdeeds, it is easy to wonder what ever happened to even the most basic ethical standards.…

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Jewish Treats

The Development of the Haggadah

On Passover night we are commanded "v'hee'ga'd'ta" and you shall tell, the story of the Exodus. (Notice the shared root of hee'ga'd'ta and Haggadah.) The Passover…

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Jewish Treats

Menashe and Ephraim

Joseph’s two sons, Menashe and Ephraim, are familiar names because (a) they each became the forefather of a tribe when Jacob divided the tribe of Joseph into two tribes, and (b) because…

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Jewish Treats

Literacy

Today, September 8, is the United Nations Organizations of Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) International Literacy Day. Established in 1965, International Literacy Day is meant to…

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Jewish Treats

Religious Recycling

Organized recycling is a development of the modern world, and from the current understanding of the concept, is not discussed in the Talmud. After all, in the era when the sages were…

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Jewish Treats

The Five Prohibitions of Yom Kippur

"...on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict your souls and do no work at all...for on that day God will forgive you and cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before…

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Jewish Treats

Make Me the High Priest

The Talmud (Shabbat 31a) relates the strange story of a non-Jewish man who wished to convert to Judaism in order to ultimately become the High Priest of Israel. He believed that, in…

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Jewish Treats

Unicorns

Young girls often wish for fairies, and brash youth dream of dragons. There is a delightful allure to the legends of fantastical creatures. But, according to the Midrash, not all such…

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