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.

Shavuot: Strange Bedfellows

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Chanukah and Purim. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret. The aforementioned holidays form natural units. When one thinks of Shavuot, the natural association is Pesach. After all, Shavuot has no independent date; it is 50…
Article
May 22, 2015

What Happened at Sinai? Revelation and its Interpreters

Dr. Elliott Malamet

Audio
May 17, 2015

Yom Ha'atzmaut 67

Rabbi Jay Kelman

When speaking at a wedding, brit, bar or bat mitzvah and the like, one generally looks to the parsha of the week to find some connection. Some are obvious, some demonstrate great insight and some might even be contrived. As we celebrate Yom…
Article
Apr 23, 2015

Pesach: Looking Forward

Rabbi Jay Kelman

There is something most beautiful about a holiday that celebrates our past being focused on future, on our children. Pesach marks the founding of our people, and it is the story of our past that we retell at our seder. “We begin with shame and end…
Article
Apr 9, 2015

Beyond Redemption? Rethinking the Wicked Son

Dr. Elliott Malamet

Audio
Apr 6, 2015

Pesach: Pass the Karpas

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"Therefore, in every generation, one must see themselves as if they have left Egypt”. All too often, we can only fully appreciate what we have when it is missing. Freedom is so much sweeter for those who have experienced slavery. And on seder night…
Article
Apr 3, 2015

Beyond Redemption?

Dr. Elliott Malamet

The basic mitzvah of any Yom Tov—and Pesach is the first of the Yamim Tovim—is simcha, to rejoice. One must look forward to Yom Tov with great joy, anticipation and happiness. So much so, that our rabbis forbade eulogies for 30 days…
Program
Mar 15, 2015

Shushan Purim: One People, Two Holidays

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“Kol Yisrael Areivim zeh lazeh”, all Jews are guarantors for one another. While we may not always live up to this ideal, the non-Jewish world understands this principle all too well, attributing the actions of one Jew to all Jews. If…
Article
Mar 6, 2015

The Fast of the Eighth of Tevet: Lost in Translation

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"I recall with distress that which befell me; with three blows He struck me this month...He surrounded me on the eighth day with darkness, left and right. Behold, all these three [days] are established as a fast, for the Greek king forced me…
Article
Dec 30, 2014

Mai Chanukah

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"Mai Chanukah? What is Chanukah?" (Shabbat 21b). To this rather strange question, the Gemara answers, "Our Rabbis taught: From the twenty-fifth of Kislev the days of Chanukah are eight on which eulogies and fasting are forbidden" (Shabbat 21b). The…
Article
Dec 21, 2014