Jewish Treats

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…

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Jewish Treats

The Jew Who Played for Germany

It is impossible to imagine what the thoughts of Rudi Victor Ball were when high ranking Nazi officials asked him to rejoin his German ice hockey teammates and play for Germany in the…

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Jewish Treats

The Purim Story in Under 300 Words

At the end of a 180-day feast, the King of Persia-Medea, Achashverosh, banished (some say, executed) his wife, Vashti, for refusing to appear at his banquet. He then staged an elaborate…

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Jewish Treats

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…

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Jewish Treats

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 of the Hebrew calendar that the Jewish people mourn the destruction…

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Jewish Treats

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…

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Jewish Treats

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…

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Haazinu,Weekly Message

Haazinu 5783-2022

“The Final Song” (updated and revised from Haazinu 1999-5759) by, Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Haazinu, features the final song which Moses sings before his…

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Jewish Treats

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…

Read More

Jewish Treats

The Purim Story in Under 300 Words

At the end of a 180-day feast, the King of Persia-Media, Achashverosh, banished (some say, executed) his wife, Vashti, for refusing to appear at his banquet. He then staged an elaborate…

Read More