A Friendly Emperor
On November 17th, in the year 331 C.E., Flavius Claudius Julianus (also known as Julian) was born. He was the son of the half-brother of Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to recognize…
A Document Against Antisemitism
It was on this day in 1965 that the Catholic Church officially stopped blaming the Jewish people for the death of Jesus. This groundbreaking statement came after more than a millennium of…
The Yom Kippur War
It would be impossible in this format to provide a full history of the events that led to the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in the fall of 1973. However, in honor of the second ceasefire…
Lech Lecha 5782-2021
“Understanding Ishmael” (updated and revised from 5762-2001) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Lech Lecha, we encounter the birth of Abram’s (his name…
Bereshith 5782-2021
“Being Moral in an Increasingly Immoral Environment” (updated and revised from Bereshith 5763-2002) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Bereshith, is one of the…
Sukkot 5782-2021
“A Sukkah Memory” (updated and revised from Sukkot 5763-2002) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald Growing up as one of the few religious Yeshiva students in the East Bronx in the early 1950s was…
Build Your Own Sukkah
Webster’s Dictionary defines a Tabernacle as a temporary dwelling, which is why the Jewish holiday of Sukkot is known as the Feast of the Tabernacles. A sukkah, however, is a lot more…
Yom Kippur 5782-2021
“Smashing the Golden Calves” (updated and revised from Yom Kippur 5764-2003) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald Virtually all the holidays and festivals of the Jewish calendar revolve around…
Mosquitoes No More
There are few insects as disliked as the mosquito. When people wonder about the purpose of annoying bugs, the mosquito is the first one whose existence they question. (As a point of…
Uprising At Treblinka
The heinous plans of the Nazis seemed too horrible to be credible. Who could imagine “civilized” men conceiving of Operation Reinhard, a plan to oversee the building of Belzec, Sobibor…