Summertime is the best time to buy fresh produce at the peak of its season, when flavor is optimum. Farmers’ markets are the perfect place to find a super selection of ripe flavor-packed locally grown fruits and vegetables that are fresh from the fields. Juicy tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, leafy salad greens, fresh herbs, sweet golden […]
Journey of Faith: A Comprehensive Commentary on Sefer Bamidbar By Yonasan David Arenias Shaarei Torah Publications, 2013 640 pages Mikraot Gedolot, the classic set of Chumashim containing a plethora of rabbinic commentaries, was not designed by a classroom teacher. Approaching the page can be intimidating. Setting aside the difficulties of deciphering the varieties of Hebrew […]
Exploring One of the Most Puzzling Rituals at a Jewish Wedding By Reuven Becker “Did you get to see the mizinke tantz?” my wife asked me while we were driving home from a wedding. “Yes,” I said. “My friend Shaindy was standing right next to me. She feels it’s taken from the secular Yiddish theatre […]
The Laws of Cooking and Warming Food on Shabbat By Mordechai Willig Maggid and Yeshiva University Press Jerusalem; New York, 2013 479 pages There are certain tricks of the trade to being a rabbi. Only one in a million can have every halachah at his fingertips. The rest must simply prepare themselves for possible inquiries. […]
The Unexpected Road: Storied Jewish Lives Around the World By Rabbi Hillel Goldberg Feldheim Publishers Israel, 2013 228 pages Reviewed by Leah R. Lightman There is no question that the Orthodox Jewish community in the second decade of the twenty-first century is in search of “inspiration.” Note the growing number of […]
“. . . and the childless one should not say, ‘Look, I am a shriveled tree.’ For this is what Hashem said to the barren ones who observe My Sabbaths and choose what I desire and hold tightly onto My covenant: In My house and within My walls I will give to them a place […]
Not to Forget: The Story of Harry Reiss and the Creation of the Rockland Center for Holocaust Studies By Marion Reiss MP Press, 2013 212 pages My generation was raised in the shadow of the Holocaust, as children and grandchildren of survivors. Not only at family gatherings but in school, year after year, we encountered […]
By Mayer Fertig Mayer Fertig, chief communications officer of the Orthodox Union, converses with Allen Fagin, newly named executive vice president and chief professional officer of the OU. Over the past few years, the Orthodox Union has witnessed stunning growth. Multi-faceted and wide-ranging, the OU is today not only a leader in kashrut, certifying […]
By Judy Gruen In the mikvah’s waiting room, I am engrossed as I watch my dear friend Jenna, clad in a long robe, face the rabbis who have overseen her geirut process. They ask: Do you realize this step is irrevocable? Do you believe the Torah, both Oral and Written, was given by God at […]
Taking Our Cue from Pew By Steven Weil Not all of the news coming out of the Pew Research Center’s “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” released this past October is depressing. The Orthodox population is growing exponentially. We have a high birthrate and a very low intermarriage rate. Moreover, one of the most impressive […]