Jewish Holidays

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Jewish Holidays resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Purim: For the People

Rabbi Jay Kelman

What should one do when the needs of the Jewish people conflict with the needs of Judaism? When the only way to keep our people Jewishly involved is to bend (or perhaps break) the norms of a traditional way of life? The Jewish people have been…
Article
Mar 12, 2017

Chanukah: 70 Bulls and 8 Lights

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing Jewishly conscious people in the modern world is figuring out the proper relationship we are to have vis a vis the outside world. Should it be one of rejection, integration or compromise? The above models have…
Article
Dec 25, 2016

Shabbat Chol HaMoed: Let's Skip This Year

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"Keep the harvest festival as the year changes" (Shemot 34:22). This (half) verse is the only reference to Sukkoth (or more precisely Chag Ha'aseif, the harvest festival) in the Torah reading that our Sages have ordained for Shabbat…
Article
Oct 21, 2016

Sukkot: Fear and Joy

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The Jewish year begins with the aseret yemei teshuva, the ten days of repentance. They begin with the strict justice of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Hadin; and culminate on Yom Kippur, with its unique opportunity for forgiveness. The intensity of these days…
Article
Oct 16, 2016

Yom Kippur: Play Ball!

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“There are those who acquire their world in one moment” (Avodah Zara 18a). One action can define a life. While some people have to work their entire lives to be worthy of entering the World to Come, others can acquire their eternal…
Article
Oct 14, 2016

Yom Kippur: Where Are You?

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed.” No two holidays are as thematically connected as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So much so that we view them almost as one, the bookends of the Yamim Noraim, the days of awe…
Article
Oct 10, 2016

Rosh Hashanah: A Redemptive Moment

Rabbi Jay Kelman

One of the strengths of the Jewish people is our ability to focus on the future. What we do tomorrow is more important than we did yesterday. The entire notion of teshuva is dependent on our ability to move beyond the past, to say that I can do…
Article
Oct 2, 2016

Tisha B'Av Program 2016-The Spanish Inquisition: Mysticism in a New Land

Dr. Reena Basser

Another entry in our Tisha B'Av Program series by Dr. Reena Basser, Ph.D. in Ancient History, has taught at Queen’s University and Tanenbaum CHAT.
Audio
Aug 15, 2016

Tisha B'Av Program 2016-Ahavat Chinam: Inspiration, Motivation, and Practical Pointers

Rabbi Tuvia Aronson

Another entry in our Tisha B'Av Program series by Rabbi Tuvia Aronson, Rav of “The Ohel” Shul and Beit Midrash Or Chaveirim, Pardes Hana, Israel.
Audio
Aug 15, 2016

Tisha B’Av & Yom Hashoah: Tension in Incorporating the Memory of the Holocaust in Ritual

Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot

Another entry in our Tisha B'Av Program series by Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, Spiritual Leader, Congregation Netivot Shalom, Teaneck, NJ.
Audio
Aug 15, 2016