Holidays are a most opportune time to instill in our children the values and character traits that personify a Jewish lifestyle. At first glance…
Shabbat Chol HaMoed: a Matter of Context
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…
Sukkot: Time to Teach
Holidays are a most opportune time to instill in our children the values and character traits that personify a Jewish lifestyle. At first glance…
Yom Kippur: a Marriage Made in Heaven
“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…
Tisha B'Av: Constructive Hatred
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…
Shavuot: A Long Weekend
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: Coming Together
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…
Yom Ha'atzmaut: A 74 Piece Orchestra
Four, seven, ten, eighteen, forty, seventy, for Jews around the world have an immediate and reflective association(s). The four questions, seven days…
Purim: To Sing or not to Sing
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…
Tu Bishvat: Winter Warmth
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…
Shemini Atzeret: Three is Not a Crowd
Unlike our other holidays, the holiday of Sukkot does not celebrate a particular historical event at a particular moment in time. Rather it…
Shabbat Chol HaMoed: A Long Journey
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…
Sukkot: The Season of Joy
"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…
Yom Kippur: Far and Near
“With the approval of Hamakom, the Omnipresent, and with the approval of the congregation, in the convocation of the court above, and in the…
Rosh Hashanah: Sounding the Shofar
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…
Tu B'Av: The Happiest Day
“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…
Tisha B'Av: Greetings and Salutations
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…
Yom Yerushalayim: Where is Jerusalem?
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…