Learn the history and symbolism of the Jewish wedding canopy, and the various options for finding or making your own. The huppah (also commonly spelled chuppah) is a symbol of God’s presence at a ...
You've got a friend. The first litmus test asks whether the potential inductee observes all the practices expected of haverim or if there are lapses. There is a difference of opinion about people who ...
Whenever I had the slightest hint of a sore throat, the remedy in our Ashkenazi Jewish home was gogol mogol (kogel mogel in Polish). Gogol mogol is a Yiddish word for a shtetl recipe that dates back ...
This Friday night practice is taken from the priestly blessing. Many Jewish parents embrace the custom of blessing their children on Friday evening. This custom is a nice way of bringing gratitude and ...
Legal midrash on Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. All of these midrashim are line-by-line commentaries that tease laws or clarifications of laws out of the biblical text. Like most midrashim, ...
The first reading for Simchat Torah is taken from the very end of the Torah. In this portion. Known in Hebrew as “Ve-zot Ha-berachah,” “this is the blessing,” Moses offers a blessing to the tribes of ...
During World War II, the Nazis established more than 400 ghettos for the purpose of isolating and controlling the Jews. During World War II, the Nazis established more than 400 ghettos in order to ...
The Jewish God is not merely a philosophical concept, a final cause which explains the existence of the universe. He is a personal God, the true hero of the biblical stories, and the guide and mentor ...
The widespread violence of Nov. 9-10, 1938 signaled an escalation in the Nazi reign of terror. The unprecedented pogrom of November 9-10, 1938 in Germany has passed ...
A Jewish prayer that asks for a safe journey. The Traveler’s Prayer — also known as the Wayfarer’s Prayer or Tefilat Haderech in Hebrew — is a prayer said at the onset of a journey. It is customary to ...
The link Maimonides found between confession and repentance. With regard to all the precepts of the Torah, both affirmative and negative, if a person transgresses any one of them, either willfully or ...
Dishes can be made of several substances: china, earthenware, glass, wood, various plas­tics, metal. Some can be kashered [made kosher], some cannot, some are debatable. Leviticus 6:21 says, “And the ...