Each family has its favorite “tried and true” recipes that it absolutely has to include as part of the Seder menu. Tradition, tradition! But preparing family-style meals during Pesach often becomes a challenge, especially when preparing for young children. I hope these easy Passover dishes, adapted from my cookbooks The Food Processor Bible (Vancouver, Canada, […]
How is it that an elder statesman of the Jewish community, a man with wide-ranging responsibility in a massive organization he helped build, can find the time to write a beautifully flowing commentary on the Haggadah that combines exquisite language,
“Why learn Gemara?” is a question most ba’alei teshuvah will ask themselves in the course of their Torah study. It is rather unlikely that Gemara inspired the ba’al teshuvah to take his initial step towards Torah. He was probably attracted to Torah by the beauty of its ideas about life, purpose, self-knowledge and relationships. Having […]
I grew up in New England. Seasons in New England are the stuff of legend: Raging thunderstorms and scorching heat in summer, bursts of color in fall, snow measured by yardsticks in winter and a watercolor wash of flowers in spring. There is no missing it; the rhythm of the seasons is not subtle. Moving […]
Preparing for a seder in Balad, Iraq, 2004. Courtesy of the Unit Ministry Team PESACH IN IRAQ One week after US forces toppled Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical regime in April 2003, Jews everywhere gathered around their Seder tables to celebrate Pesach. Inside an army tent in the desert outside Baghdad, twenty-five Jewish American soldiers–scruffy, tired and […]
With the brilliance of a comet Ruth streaked through our lives for fourteen years minus one week, gone now two weeks short of twenty-eight years, twice the length of her effervescent life. “With a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm,” God blasted Egypt with plagues, one for each finger, says the Hagaddah, times five for […]
Ish Yehudi: The Life and the Legacy of a Torah Great, Rav Joseph Tzvi Carlebach By Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach Shearith Joseph Publications New York, 2008 316 pages Rabbi Joseph Carlebach: Authenticity and Heroism in Cataclysmic Times The legendary three communities Kehillot AHU (Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck) boasted authors, rabbis and scholars of storied fame in […]
Q: How do I stop my terrible habit of constantly snacking on anything and everything?
A: Snacking is not a terrible habit. In fact, most nutrition experts agree that regular healthy snacking is a smart nutrition practice. It provides valuable nutrients in between meals and also keeps you from getting too hungry. If you don’t eat enough and you allow yourself to get extremely hungry, you may end up overeating when food is available to you, leading you to consume extra calories. Snacking is especially important for individuals over age sixty-five.
MISCONCEPTION: Upon leaving Egypt, the Jews crossed the Yam Suf, which is translated as the Red Sea. This translation, however, is an error. Red Sea is a corruption of the correct Old English (OE) translation, Reed (Rede) Sea. (Rede is a legitimate spelling of reed in OE.) FACT: The notion that the Yam Suf is […]
In Be’er Sheva, one can walk in the footsteps of our forefather Avraham. Photos: www.sassontiram.com Although the Bible can be studied anywhere, only in Israel can we walk in the footsteps of the personalities of the Tanach and stand in the places that figured in the narratives of their lives. Many locations in modern Israel […]
Gemara class at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey. Photo: Judah S. Harris We are all aware that the basic Jewish curriculum has been set for us by tradition and appears in Avot. Mikra (which includes Chumash, Nach, Hebrew language and linguistic skills), Mishnah, Talmud, and works of halachah are the basic components of the […]
The Eye of the Storm: A Calm View of Raging Issues By Rabbi Aharon Feldman Yad Yosef Publications Jerusalem, 2009 244 pages Few contemporary roshei yeshivah have been endowed with the capacity to write a volume such as The Eye of the Storm; and of the coterie that could, many, if not most, are probably […]
We are all familiar with the Chazal that tells of the angel who touches each child on the lip just prior to birth, causing him to forget all the Torah taught in the womb. As many teachers will attest, that malach seems to reappear and touch the child again and again. How else could we […]
The past few decades have witnessed the rapid growth of Yeshivot that adhere to what is known as “The Zilberman Model” in the world of Jewish Education. Yeshivot across the spectrum, from Jerusalem to Johannesburg to Toronoto, have adapted the Zilberman model of education. What exactly is the Zilberman method, and why has it become […]
“Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” In my family, this is not the opening line to a joke. It is one of the strictest rules we have. I take it very seriously because I was the one who failed in this matter. One evening, a young man came to our […]
Marvin Schick’s recent study, A Census of Jewish Day Schools in the United States 2008-9,1 clearly demonstrates growth in the number of day schools as well as significantly increased student enrollment within these institutions. Unquestionably, within the last decade, American Jews have come to accept that a crucial part of their children’s socialization into Judaism […]
“Why learn Gemara?” is a question most ba’alei teshuvah will ask themselves in the course of their Torah study. It is rather unlikely that Gemara inspired the ba’al teshuvah to take his initial step towards Torah. He was probably attracted to Torah by the beauty of its ideas about life, purpose, self-knowledge and relationships. Having […]
Bruria delivering a devar Torah at her Bat Mitzvah. Photos courtesy of the Bleich family Good frum girls don’t make Bat Mitzvahs–such was the prevailing view when I was growing up. And so when I turned twelve, I was proud to mark the occasion by doing– nothing. At the Australian day school I attended, this […]
Rabbi Yitzchak Blau shows how the wisdom of the Talmud is relevant to our personal dilemmas in his new book,
Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks does something remarkable in his latest book, Covenant & Conversation: Genesis– The Book of Beginnings—