Who Was Rabbi Akiva
Akiva ben Yosef was once an ignorant and illiterate shepherd. So poor and downtrodden a figure was Akiva that his extremely wealthy father-in-law disinherited Akiva’s wife, Rachel, for…
The Great Sea Monster
For most of history, sea monsters were considered among the greatest perils of sea travel. Most probably, the “monsters” that they feared were simply whales, sharks and giant squid that…
Golem
The story of the Golem of Prague is one of the best-known, fantastic and romantic Eastern European tales. It has been retold in both prose and play-form and is perpetuated in the oral…
Cutting Through Stone
By all accounts, the First Temple was a magnificent edifice built with cedars from Lebanon and enormous quarried stones. When contemplating the manner in which the Temple was constructed,…
The Work of the Frogs
Frogs are fascinating creatures. They are, perhaps, the most common and best-known amphibians. There are over 4,800 types of frogs. While some frogs are poisonous, they are, on the…
Who Was Rabbi Akiva?
Akiva ben Yosef was once an ignorant and illiterate shepherd. So poor and downtrodden a figure was Akiva that his extremely wealthy father-in-law disinherited Akiva’s wife, Rachel, for…
The Great Bird Ziz
In honor of National Bird Day, Jewish Treats would like to introduce one of the great creatures of Jewish legend, the Ziz. Whereas the term Leviathan (the giant primordial fish) has…
A Sephardi Gaon
Because of the dedication of Rabbi Ezra Attiya (1885-1969), hundreds of Sephardic Jews chose to extend their education, scores decided to dedicate their lives to Torah study and dozens of…
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.…
Heralded With Blessings
The opening prayer of Pesukei D’zimra is Baruch She’amar - Blessed is He who Said. It is a prose poem that uses an anaphora, a literary style in which the same word is repeated at the…