Sing the Songs of Shabbat
Music is said to raise a person’s spirit (Berachot 57b), and there is no time more appropriate for joyousness than Shabbat, the day of rest. To honor Shabbat, and to bring it more…
Mourning Jerusalem: A Brief History of the First Temple
On Tuesday, Jews all over the world will observe the fast of Tisha b’Av.It is on this day that the Jewish people mourn the destruction of both the First and Second Temples. The First…
Simple Measurements
In honor of World Metrology Day, which celebrates the 1875 Metre Convention that established a worldwide uniformity of measurement (with the notable exception of the United States),…
A Jewess in the Revolution
For a Jew to be a landowner, or the owner of an import and export business, or a tavern-keeper, was a rare feat. For a Jew to be all three and a woman who also raised eight children (a…
The Additional Service
“In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), the sages note that the world stands on three things: Torah, Avodah and Gemilut Chasadim (acts of kindness).” The term “avodah” is associated with…
Lag Ba’omer
The period of mourning* (for the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva who died of plague) associated with Sefirat Ha’omer is not observed on the 33rd day of the Omer, a day known…
Curly-Headed White Chief with One Tongue
On May 30, 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which officially defined the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and opened up a significant part of what became…
Waves of Aliyah
Although the State of Israel was officially established in 1948, the beginning of the mass return of Jews to the Promised Land began in the 1880s. Each distinct wave of immigration is now…
All That Jazz
Jewish Treats presents a short biography of Artie Shaw, who often competed with Benny Goodman for the title of “The King of Swing.”: Born in New York City in 1910, Artie Shaw was…
Marvelous Manna
“Foodies” everywhere might appreciate the fact that some people see the exceptionally wide variety of textures and flavors that are found in food as proof of God’s desire for humankind to…