Terumah 5769-2009
"The Delicate Balance" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week's parasha, parashat Terumah, begins a series of four and a half parashiot that deal extensively with erecting the Mishkan,…
Bechukotai 5760-2000
"The Big 'IF': The Question of Free Choice" by Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald This coming week's parasha, parashat Bechukotai, is one of the two parashiot of the Torah that are known as the…
Summer Camp
The end of the school year is upon us, and across the country, many parents are packing their children’s trunks for summer camp. The world of Jewish camping began as a reaction to…
An Eight or Nine Day Week?
Practically all civilized humanity has agreed on some basic common measures to mark time. A day consisting of 24 hours follows the natural rotation of the earth on its axis. The lunar…
The Jewish Community of Vegas, Stays in Vegas! Jews of Nevada
When the territory now known as Nevada was acquired in 1848 after the Mexican War, “Forty-Niners”, headed west to mine for gold. By the late 1870s, there were about 1,000 Jews in Nevada,…
More Than A Book Seller
Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh, born on January 2, 1836, to a poor family near Minsk, had a traditional religious Jewish childhood. After his father passed away when he was 13, …
The Jews of Puerto Rico
On October 18, 1898, the “Stars and Stripes” flag of the United States was raised over Puerto Rico, announcing that the island was now under American sovereignty. Today’s Treat presents…
A Day for Publishers
The American world of books and letters owes a great deal to the date of September 12th, for on this date, in 1891 and 1892, two giants of the American publishing industry were born:…
Connecting the Words
In honor of “Dictionary Day,” Jewish Treats looks at a renowned Jewish dictionary that has served scholars and students since the turn of the 20th century. A Dictionary of Targumim,…
An Interesting Philologist
Language is considered to be one of the unique characteristics of humankind. Lazarus (Eliezer Solomon ) Geiger believed that there was a great deal to learn about humanity from studying…