The Talmud depicts the yetzer hara (temptation to sin) as an external agent and tells us that its tactics are very insidious. It does not make a frontal attack, directly challenging a person’s beliefs.

Regardless of Klal Yisrael’s inability to participate in Shalosh Regalim Temple offerings in Jerusalem in modern times, one American couple has made it their business to make the cross-Atlantic flight before every Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot.

Every Pesach, most of my friends and family embrace matzoh as though it were manna, using it at every opportunity and at every meal. I, however, run screaming in the other direction whenever it makes its appearance after the Seder.

It is the winter of 1941, but even the bitterness of the harsh Polish winter is dwarfed by the cold, hard vise of the Nazi conquerors which is pressing ever tighter on the hundreds of thousands of Jews trapped in the inhuman conditions of the Warsaw Ghetto

The Internet can be a curious measure of the spiritual standing of Klal Yisrael.

The unforgettable Ponevezher Rav, Rabbi Yosef Kahanneman, z”l, once remarked that the frigid mikveh waters of Europe in which the Jewish mothers immersed gave their children the strength to overcome flames of fire

In recent years, it has become clear to many scientists that the universe appears as if it were specifically designed for the existence and well-being of Man. This phenomenon, which has attracted considerable scientific attention, has become known as the anthropic principle1,2 from the Greek word anthropos, meaning “man.”

Only a small minority in Israel accepted the Yariv-Shemtov “territories for peace” formula when it was proposed in 1974, following the Yom Kippur War, when less than a dozen members of Israel’s Knesset supported the idea

Witness this Thursday evening scene: eight-year-old Yael’s fever just skyrocketed to 104°, Jeremy is late for his SAT review course and Rachel is whining for dinner. A friend calls to ask if two extra guests can sleep over this Shabbat.

“In its unique ability to sink ‘grass roots’ in America’s great backyard, NCSY has demonstrated that American youth is in search of Torah.”
These words were penned in 1969 by the Orthodox Union’s Rabbi Pinchas Stolper in a Jewish Life article assessing the impact of the organization’s National Conference of Synagogue Youth over the ten years since its inception in 1959.

Every year, upon the completion of their military service, thousands of young Israelis set out on a journey of personal growth to the Far East or to South America. The annual number of visiting Israelis to the Far East has been estimated at 60,000, of whom a large number are young people.