Lamenting, loving, leveling: A spiritual pathway through this year’s Jewish holidays
This year’s arc of holidays extending from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, and finally, to Simchat Torah—the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 on the Jewish calendar—is laden with tears. How can we approach God...
Braiding in the New Year
I always love the dramatic reveal when pulling the cover off the challah on Shabbat and holidays—anticipatory eyes lighting up around the room as the beautiful bread appears in all its shiny glory in...
‘There is no king without a people’: The mystic secret of Rosh Hashanah
Nowhere in the Five Books of Moses is the holiday of Rosh Hashanah referred to with this name by which it is commonly known today. The term “Rosh Hashanah” originated in the Talmudic period,...
Rosh Hashanah jewelry offers a way to support Israel
As Rosh Hashanah approaches, a unique social enterprise in Israel is offering Jewish Americans the opportunity to support Israel and its olim communities through the purchase of handmade jewelry. Megemeria, a Jerusalem-based jewelry school and social...
A sweet taste of old meets new this Rosh Hashana
Sometimes, what’s old is new again. That certainly applies to classic Jewish recipes, many jotted down by home cooks—moms, aunts, grandmoms, great-grandmothers—who didn’t add specific measurements or even the temperatures at which to bake...
Holy Days and Holidays
MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — I suppose the etymology of the two phrases (Holy Days and Holidays) is the same, but their significance in this day and age is very different. Holidays are a time...
Two children’s books for Jewish holidays
Author Sandra Feder notes that Judaism acknowledges a duality in life: with the bitter often will come the sweet, and vice versa. “Sweet wine or grape juice is used to welcome Shabbat on Friday...
Jewish pilgrims to Uman not allowed to connect in Moldova
Thousands of Israeli pilgrims traveling to the burial site of a revered rabbi in Ukraine ahead of Rosh Hashanah next month will not be permitted to connect through Moldova and will be rerouted via...
‘Strange turn of events made me do it,’ rabbis say of penning Oct. 7...
One of the images in a mournful poem by the seventh-century rabbi Eleazar ben Kalir, which is a central kinah prayer chanted on the Tisha B’Av fast day, refers to the silenced words of Temple singers.
Giving literary form...
KKJ-JNF unveils rare photos of Tisha B’Av from early Israeli statehood
Tisha B’Av, the pinnacle of the Jewish mourning period for destructions of the First and Second Temples, will be observed this year from sundown on Aug. 13 until nightfall on Aug. 13. It is...