Holidays

What is it like to make aliyah from New Jersey precisely at a time when North American Jewry is suffering more heavily than Israel? Ahead of Yom Yerushalayim, Sarah Rindner, drawing on Yehuda ha-Levi and Yehudah Amichai, reflects.

It is customary to celebrate Tu Bi-Shevat by eating fruits and reciting the She-Hehiyanu blessing on them. This custom, however, has proved challenging in recent years as advances in technology have made it difficult to find new fruit—as defined by halakhah—to say the She-Hehiyanu

Chaim Saiman comments on the nature of Simhat Torah.

Shloime Schwartz looks at the numerous lessons about Teshuvah that the commentaries derive from the story of Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya.

Shmuel Lubin analyzes Rav Hutner's interpretation of the Passover Seder and expands on Rav Hutner's commentary surrounding the contrast of freedom and suffering.

The tokhahah in Leviticus 26 is frequently read as a tragedy, warning of the dire consequences of sin and national failure. Ahead of Yom Kippur 5786, Milton Torres-Ceron offers a new reading, informed by the traditional "pardes" method, that frames Leviticus 26 as an affirmation on unwavering divine companionship with Israel.

Yosef Lindell tracks the Staff of Moses throughout its amazing "life".

Can we imagine a world in which the Exodus never occurred? David Curwin suggests that this - as well as a broader dispute about the relationship between Torah and history - is subject to a dispute between The Rav, R. Joseph Dov he-Levi, and his namesake, the Beit ha-Levi.

Batya Hefter explores a Hasidic understanding of “Sinai consciousness” and proposes a way to re-experience it on Shavuot.

Ezra Sivan probes the Sabbath and the Torah's call to love God.