Va’etchanan 5783-2023

"The Dialectic of Body and Soul" (updated and revised from Va’etchanan 5764-2004) In this week’s parasha, parashat Va’etchanan, we encounter several well-known and significant texts.…

Read More

The Saddest Day

When ten of the twelve scouts who were dispatched by Moses to survey the Promised Land returned with a negative report, God’s anger was kindled. The Almighty decreed that the adults of…

Read More

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…

Read More

History of the State Since 1948

History of the StateSince 1948 Table of Contents the war of independence population shifts 1956- the sinai campaign 1967 –…

Pinchas 5761-2001

"The Pain of Giving Reproof" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald On Sunday, July 8th, Jews the world over observed the fast of Shivah Asar B'Tamuz, the Seventeenth day of Tamuz. The fast marks…

Read More

Armistice

Many people assume that the end of a war implies that a peace treaty has been signed.   Actually, there are several ways to end a military conflict: truce, cease-fire, armistice or…

Read More

Does the Torah Support the Belief in Extraterrestrial Life?

Today, July 2nd, is celebrated world-wide, as "World UFO Day." It all started on July 2, 1947, when W.W. "Mac" Brazel discovered a metallic object on his Roswell, NM ranch. The U.S.…

Read More

The Samurai Who Saved Thousands of Jews from the Nazis

Often, when tragedy strikes, many seek to uncover a silver lining by searching for heroes and their selflessness. On the pantheon of such heroes during the Shoah (the Holocaust) is Chiune…

Read More

The Samurai Who Saved Thousands of Jews from the Nazis

Often, when tragedy strikes, many seek to uncover a silver lining by searching for heroes and their selflessness. On the pantheon of such heroes during the Shoah (the Holocaust) is Chiune…

Read More

The Second Uprising

History is a study in cause and effect. On the 9th of Av (Saturday, July 25. Fast observed on Sunday, July 26), the Jewish people mourn two additional tragic events that…

Read More