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 “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 and adapted from […]

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 […]

By Dovid Bashevkin Much attention has been focused on the largely dire implications to be gleaned from the Pew report, which has led to the neglect of a lesser-known, but perhaps equally valuable, report issued simultaneously: The Phew Report. Commissioned by Rabbi Mordechai Leiner of the Young Israel of Izbica, the report serves as a […]

A Synagogue Companion: Insights into the Torah, Haftarot, and Shabbat Morning Prayer Services By Hayyim Angel Institute of Jewish Ideas and Ideals Distributed by Kodesh Press New York, 2014 350 pages Rabbi Hayyim Angel is a wonderfully creative teacher of Tanach who has attempted something very daring in his latest book. The multiple books he […]

By Jack Wertheimer Lubavitch Chassidism is a movement of many paradoxes. Upon the Rebbe’s passing and with no evident successor in sight, many observers expected the movement to wither; twenty years later, it has never been stronger or more influential. Much has been made of its Messianic wing—those Lubavitchers convinced that the Rebbe is the […]

The Making of a Halachic Decision By Moshe Walter Menucha Publishers Brooklyn, 2013 231 pages How do rabbis decide halachah? To a large degree, it depends on what they were taught. But how do the greatest scholars of a generation make their way through the bookshelves full of different views? The answer lies in the […]

(The writer of this piece thinks he should probably have opted to remain anonymous, since he is afraid that his friends, who are already not allowed to talk to him in shul, will not talk to him at all after they read this.) What exactly is it that God hears when we daven and simultaneously […]

  Israel’s National Holocaust Memorial I am writing this article while seated on a train in Poland, traveling between Warsaw and Krakow. Watching the Polish countryside zip by from my comfortable first-class seat, my mind keeps drifting back to the millions of Jews who rode on these same tracks over seventy years ago, crammed into […]

In honor of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s 20th yahrtzeit this summer, Jewish Action asked a number of contributors to reflect on the Rebbe’s legacy and lasting impact on Jewish life. There have been many great Jewish leaders in history. Some left a permanent mark on the Jewish mind by their contributions to Torah and the poetry […]

Misconception: If there is no Kohen, it is preferable to give the first aliyah to a Levi. Fact: Most authorities rule that it is equally acceptable to call upon a Levi or Yisrael in place of a Kohen, while some prefer to give it to a Yisrael. Background: The Torah is read publicly on Shabbat […]

There was a knock on the door when I was visiting my rebbe, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, to express my condolences upon the loss of his mother. It was 1967. It was quite early and I was the only one with the Rav at that moment. I quickly opened the door to the apartment and was […]

We live in an age of specialization, which has convinced us that even our greatest leaders excel in only a limited range of activities. It is the rare leader in whom we recognize a wide range of diverse achievements. Even among gedolei Yisrael in our history, we find some who specialized in halachah, others in […]