What is Isru Chag?
The day after an enjoyable vacation is often a time of distraction and disorientation. The same is true of the day following a religious holiday, especially after one of the week-long…
Naphtali, Son of Jacob
After four years of marriage and desperate to have a child, Rachel gave her handmaid, Bilhah, to her husband Jacob to be an additional wife and to bear children in her name. Any children…
Chanukah and Divine Order
Chanukah always overlaps with at least one Shabbat (if not two), and since Chanukah begins on the 25th of Kislev and lasts for eight days, the holiday always coincides with the…
Is Chanukah Really Eight Days?
Tonight is the eighth night of Chanukah, known as “Zot Chanukah,” a reference to the Torah portion that is read on the eighth day of Chanukah. Chanukah is set apart as an eight-day…
Isru Chag
The day after vacation is often a time of distraction and disorientation. The same is true of the day following a religious holiday, especially after one of the week-long holidays…
The Disputation of Paris
The month of June in the year 1240 C.E. was not a good time for the Jews of Europe. The trouble began with a Jewish apostate named Nicholas Donin. Wanting, perhaps, to prove his loyalty…
Mourning Jerusalem I: A Brief History of the First Temple
This coming Saturday night and Sunday, Jews the world over will be observing the fast of Tisha b’Av. It is on this day that the Jewish people mourn the destruction of both the First and…
The Book of Lamentations
On Tisha b’Av, the ninth of Av, one of the ways that the Jewish people demonstrate their mourning over the loss of both Holy Temples is by refraining from Torah study that brings pleasure…
Avinu Malkeinu
No prayer so thoroughly captures the Jewish people’s dual relationship with God as Avinu Malkeinu, “Our Father, Our King.” While Avinu Malkeinu is a prayer widely known to be part of the…
The Month of Mar-Cheshvan
While today and tomorrow are celebrated as Rosh Chodesh, today is actually the last day of the month of Tishrei and tomorrow is the first day of Mar-Cheshvan, which is the eighth month of…