Articles Holiday Thoughts

When studying literature we must study not only its content, but also its form. This is especially true in the study of poetry, where the words…

Holidays are a most opportune time to instill in our children the values and character traits that personify a Jewish lifestyle. At first glance…

“How majestic was the kohen gadol as he left the Holy of Holies in peace, without injury…like the kindness that is placed on the bridegroom’s face…

One does not have to look very hard to find sources within our tradition that allow, encourage, or even demand that we “hate” others.  While the…

This year, Shavuot falls on a Sunday. This rather unremarkable observation is of little import today; but had we been living in Temple times, or even…

Lag BaOmer is a mysterious holiday. There is no mention of it in the Gemara, a fact that led the Chatam Sofer to object to the many practices of the…

Four, seven, ten, eighteen, forty, seventy, for Jews around the world have an immediate and reflective association(s). The four questions, seven days…

Rav Soloveitchik argued that there is no independent field of Jewish philosophy. Rather, this master of Jewish philosophy—with a Ph.D. in neo-Kantian…

I write these words as I sit looking out the window at the absolutely beautiful snow that adorns our streets, homes, trees and all else outdoors. If…

Unlike our other holidays, the holiday of Sukkot does not celebrate a particular historical event at a particular moment in time. Rather it…

It is hard to imagine a more impactful ritual than that of our weekly Torah reading. While its origins date to Moshe Rabbeinu—acting in his capacity…

"On the first day, you must take for yourself a fruit of the citron tree, an opened palm frond, myrtle branches, and willows of the brook, and you…

“With the approval of Hamakom, the Omnipresent, and with the approval of the congregation, in the convocation of the court above, and in the…

The blowing of the shofar is a most enigmatic mitzvah. The reasons we eat matzah, sit in the Sukkah or take the lulav are readily apparent; they…

“Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: There were no days more joyous than the 15th of Av (Tu B'Av) and Yom Kippur, for on those days the daughters of…

Judaism places great emphasis on the proper greeting of people. The Talmudic term for a greeting, a sheilat shalom, invokes a reference to G-d, peace…

One could quite reasonably make the argument that the overarching goal of the Torah is the establishment of a Jewish state that will serve as a model…

A few years ago while on a visit to Israel, my good friend Michael Levenstein z”l, in whose memory this devar Torah is dedicated, was giving my wife…