The Tenth of Tevet
And it was in the ninth year of [King Zaddekiah’s] reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth (day) of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came, he and all his legions, upon…
The Book(s) of Maccabees
Chanukah is neither directly ordained in the Torah (like Rosh Hashana, Passover, etc.) nor mentioned in any other biblical text (as Purim is in the Book of Esther). The Books of Maccabees…
From Them I Learned
Our modern media culture likes to “label” successful people: The richest person, the prettiest person, the person of the year, and etc. And because our culture is so influenced by the…
Whose First Fruits
When the Oral Law was first codified, most Jews lived in agrarian settings. Today, being less familiar with agrarian culture, some people find it difficult to relate to some of the…
Moving Plans
It is not uncommon to picture the era of the rabbis of the Talmud as a world in which the vast majority of Jews still lived in all Jewish environments. In reality, however, the sages…
Not the Time for Idle Thoughts
The words of the sages compiled in Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Fathers have multiple layers of meaning. They can be applied to specific types of people at specific times but can also be…