Lose The Leather

Once a year, Jews around the world make a unique, and not always attractive, fashion statement by wearing clunky sneakers or fuzzy slippers. (The Talmud records that the sages wore…

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Vayeishev 5768-2007

"The Seduction of Joseph" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week's parasha, parashat Vayeishev, Joseph is brought down to Egypt and sold by the Ishmaelites to Potiphar, one of…

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Acharei Mot-Kedoshim 5778-2018

“The Extreme Sanctity of the Holy of Holies--Revisited” In parashat Acharei Mot, the first of this week’s double parashiyot, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, we learn of the prohibition to enter the…

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Matot-Masei 5767-2007

"Vindicated Before G-d and Before People" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In the first of this week's double parashiot, parashat Matot, we read about the tribes of Reuben, Gad (and,…

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Partners Throughout

The relationship between two people sharing authority can often be difficult. Nevertheless, in the early Talmudic era, the leadership of the Jewish people was usually shared between two…

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Thou Shalt Not Anoint

The observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, calls for abstention from five activities: eating/drinking, anointing, washing oneself, wearing leather shoes and marital…

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“Thou Shalt Not Anoint”

The observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, calls for abstention from five activities: eating/drinking, anointing, washing oneself, wearing leather shoes and marital relations.…

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Thou Shalt Not Anoint?

The observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, calls for abstention from five activities: eating, drinking, anointing/washing oneself, wearing leather shoes and marital relations.…

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The Missing Ark

Mention the Ark of the Covenant and most people think of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the 1981 movie starring Harrison Ford. The real Ark of the Covenant, created concurrently with the other…

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Thou Shalt Not Anoint

The observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, calls for abstention from five activities: eating/drinking, anointing, washing oneself, wearing leather shoes and marital relations.…

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