The Sadducee King Yannai

Alexander Jannaeus (Yannai or Y’honatan in Hebrew) served as the second Hasmonean king of Judea from 103 BCE until his death in 76 BCE. The third son of John Hyrcanus, he succeeded his…

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Metzorah 5774-2014

“The Peddler and Evil Speech” by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Metzorah, again addresses the Biblical affliction Tzara’at, צָּרַעַת. Parashat Metzorah teaches…

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Rabbi and Statesman, Rabbi Moses Schorr

Rabbi Moses Schorr was a passionate academic who dedicated most of his indefatigable energy to the Jewish people. Born on May 10, 1874, in Pryemysl, Galicia, when it was still part of…

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Rabbi and Statesman, Rabbi Moses Schorr

Rabbi Moses Schorr was a passionate academic who dedicated most of his indefatigable energy to the Jewish people. Born on May 10, 1874, in Priemysel, Galicia, when it was still part of…

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Rabbi and Statesman, Rabbi Moses Schorr

Rabbi Moses Schorr was a passionate academic who dedicated most of his indefatigable energy to the Jewish people. Born on May 10, 1874, in Przemyśl, Galicia, when it was still part of…

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Sources Commentators

Abarbanel (1437-1508, Spanish statesman, philosopher and commentator) Israel Abrahams (1858-1925) Achad Ha’Am (Asher Zvi Hirsh Ginsberg, 1856-1927) AJOP (Association for Jewish Outreach…

Kedoshim 5782-2022

“Giving Proper Reproof” (updated and revised from Kedoshim 5763-2003) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Kedoshim, we encounter the well-known Biblical dictum,…

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Kedoshim 5763-2003

"Giving Proper Reproof" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this coming week's parasha, parashat Kedoshim, we encounter the well-known Biblical dictum recorded in Leviticus 19:17: "Lo tis'nah…

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Rabbi Shmuel Salant

On the 29th of Av, 1909, corresponding to August 16th, Rabbi Shmuel Salant, Jerusalem’s long-time Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, passed away. Rabbi Shmuel was born in 1816 in Bialystok, then…

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Of Shamrocks, Snails and Survivors: the life of Rabbi Isaac Herzog

Rabbi Isaac Herzog, the State of Israel’s first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, passed away, at age 70, on this date - the 19th of Tammuz – sixty years ago, in 1959, corresponding to July 25th.…

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