Mimouna
Jews rejoice on Passover to celebrate their redemption from slavery in Egypt. Because of Passover’s connection to redemption, there is much hope that the final redemption will soon be at…
The Sixth Rebbe
Today, the 10th of Shevat, is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, who is also referred to as the Rayatz (an acronym of his name). Far…
Bows and Arrows
Today, Lag Ba'omer, the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, is a minor holiday on the Jewish calendar. Its observance commemorates the end of a tragic plague that took the…
The Milkman and So Much More
Born in Bavaria, but raised from the age of six in America, Nathan Straus made a fortune as the co-owner with his brother of Macy’s Department Store and the Abraham and Straus Department…
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…
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi), whose yahrtzeit is on Lag Ba’omer, was one the five survivors of the plague that took the lives of 24,000…
Mimouna
Jews rejoice on Passover to celebrate their redemption from slavery in Egypt. Because of Passover’s connection to redemption, there is much hope that the final redemption will soon be at…
Rabbi Avraham Chaim Naeh
Many people think of World War I as a European war, but, as its name suggests, the entire world was affected. In Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire at that time, the…
Visiting Graves
Graveyard tours are often promoted in the month of October as an opportunity for spookiness. Judaism, however, encourages visiting the burial sites of relatives and holy people at all…
Surviving and Leading
Although born in Hungary in 1904, Rabbi Yehoshua (Joshua) Menachem Ehrenberg was living in Cracow when the Nazis began their systematic destruction of European Jewry. The city of Cracow,…