Torah And The Stars
The Torah is considered to be the blueprint of the entire creation. It is therefore not surprising that the great sages took an interest in the movement of the heavens, both from an…
The Book of Ruth
Ruth was the Moabite wife of Machlon, one of the sons of Elimelech and Naomi, a wealthy couple who had fled Bethlehem during a bitter famine and settled in Moab, a neighboring country…
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…
Ethics of the Fathers
Ethics - it’s a big word in our day and age. Between political corruption and financial misdeeds, it is easy to wonder what ever happened to even the most basic ethical standards.…
Wash and Dry
The miracles of modern science have made us aware of the vast world of micro-organisms that previous generations never knew existed. We now know that there are good bacteria that help us…
Two Pillars of Five
Jewish law, and thus Jewish life, rests on two pillars, the mitzvot between a person and God and the mitzvot between one person and another. These two pillars of law are laid out in the…
Hail to the Chief
“A blessing for the czar? Of course. May God bless and keep the czar... far away from us.” So jokes the rabbi of Anatevka during the opening number of Fiddler on the Roof. This was a real…
In Tune
Can you read Jewish music? No, not the sheet music to Fiddler on the Roof or Havah Nagillah. Trope, the musical cantillation used by Torah readers to sing-chant the holy words, is a…
Jewish Professions
Are there certain professions that are “Jewish”? For instance, is finance a “Jewish business”? This is a strange question in the twenty-first century, when Jews can be found in a wide…
A-Hunting We Won’t Go
Ah, Fall. The crisp air, the beautiful foliage and, for those who live in rural areas, the hunting season! Yes, this is the time of year when, permit in hand, hunters take to the woods…