Jewish Treats

All About Abaye

Students of the Talmud, who wrestle with legal arguments and explore Jewish legends and traditions, are also introduced to a myriad of rabbinic personalities, each of whom brings his own…

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Jewish Treats

A Twentieth Century Jewish Poet

In honor of National Poetry Month, Jewish Treats presents a brief biography of Muriel Rukeyser (December 1913-February 1980). Born and raised in New York City, Rukeyser attended Vassar…

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Jewish Treats

Menashe and Ephraim

Joseph’s two sons, Menashe and Ephraim, are familiar names because (a) they each became the forefather of a tribe when Jacob divided the tribe of Joseph into two tribes, and (b) because…

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Jewish Treats

Literacy

Today, September 8, is the United Nations Organizations of Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) International Literacy Day. Established in 1965, International Literacy Day is meant to…

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Jewish Treats

Unicorns

Young girls often wish for fairies, and brash youth dream of dragons. There is a delightful allure to the legends of fantastical creatures. But, according to the Midrash, not all such…

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Jewish Treats

It’s Not Vanity

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, whose the fairest of them all?” Snow White’s wicked step-mother is the perfect example of how society associates mirrors with vanity and wickedness. Believe…

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Jewish Treats

Why Tiberias is Holy

While Israel is the Holy Land, four of her cities are considered holier than all the others, and each of these is accorded a mystical connection with one of the four classical elements.…

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Jewish Treats

Who Was Hagar?

Stating simply that Hagar was the second wife of Abraham and the mother of Ishmael simplifies an incredibly complex character whose emotions and motivations are fleshed out in the Oral…

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Jewish Treats

Don’t Gotcha!

All of the 39 m’lachot (creative labors prohibited on Shabbat) are derived from the efforts involved in the creation of the Mishkan (Tabernacle), parts of which were  composed…

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Jewish Treats

Duties of the Heart

The concept of “being spiritual” is often assumed to be a fairly recent one, resulting, perhaps, from the enlightenment’s deconstruction of organized religion.  The idea of…

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