The Song of Songs
"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Because of the fragrance of your goodly oils, your name is ‘oil poured forth.’ Therefore, the maidens…
Let It Burn
As Passover Eve approaches, Jews around the world work hard to make certain that no chametz remains in their possession. The food in the cupboards is consumed, the house is cleaned from…
Searching for Chametz
On Passover, Jews are commanded to get rid of all "chametz" (leaven) which may be in their possession. Weeks are spent cleaning and scrubbing. To confirm the effectiveness of these…
Drama At The Seder
While the basic text of the Haggadah and format of the seder is the same around the world, each community has its own unique customs. One such custom that is pervasive throughout the…
Time of Freedom?
The sages refer to the holiday of Passover as zman chay’roo’tay’noo, the time of our freedom. This may seem obvious, since Passover celebrates the redemption of the Jewish people…
The Beauty of the Book
Illuminated manuscripts inlaid with gold or silver leaf and spectacularly illustrated are most often associated with the Medieval church (the Gospels, Psalters, etc), where texts were…
My Kids’ Inheritance
There’s a cute bumper sticker that says “I’m spending my kids’ inheritance.” If you were to ask whether the great Jewish scholars would approve of such an attitude, you might be surprised…
Ketoret Number Five
Human beings gather information about the world around them through their five senses. Of those senses, the sense of smell is often the most under-estimated, and yet it is said that…
Hester Panim
One might think that the Book of Esther is a heroic tale about Mordechai and Esther saving the Jewish people through diplomatic skill (Click here to read a summary of the Book of Esther),…
Costume Time
Those who first hear about the custom of wearing Purim costumes might assume that the tradition began as an imitation of Halloween. Research, however, places the origin of Halloween…