Celebrate and observe the Jewish holidays: Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Hanukkah, Tu Beshevat and more.
When we examine Joseph’s personality in light of Scriptures and Midrash, we can discern different traits.
Most Jews know only the legend about the miracle of the cruse of oil and very little about the actual military victories of the Maccabees.
This year on Rosh Hashanah, it was pure prayer with no background noise, and even the Shofar blowing was perfect.
The coronavirus pandemic was certainly going to make a very different Yom Kippur for me and probably every other Jew on the globe.
In this 2020 fall season, let us try to develop a true inner joy that is based not on our external assets but rather on our vulnerability, faith and resilience.
As we bid farewell to one of history’s most unusual, unorthodox Sukkot, the very soul of Simhat Torah has been winnowed down to a shell of its former self.
With the joy that is the theme of this holiday, Bracha's children have found their way home.
Once we start to read the Torah all over again, we need to be reminded of its absolute holiness, rendering it nearly inaccessible and unapproachable.
This celebration encompasses all layers of society, young and old, rich and poor, learned and less learned.
The holiday's celebratory dancing is a custom which is not required to fulfill any of the core obligations.
Being an American by birth, it has been important to me to search resources to find out how my forebearers there observed the holiday in the traditional manner.
A special feature of the service is calling all children under 13 years to the Reading of the Law.
Normally thousands of people attend, praying and singing to God.
The original sukkah-huts in the desert provided the first appreciation of human vulnerability.
Sukkot externalizes the internal joy of the purified person, the atoned, the person celebrating the beginning of the new year with a clean heart and good will.
One needs to enter the sukkah and be fully encompassed by it to fulfill his or her obligation to dwell in the sukkah.
The haftarah for Yom Kippur begins with these action-filled words of Isaiah. We must act; we must cut the road through; it is up to us clear the way for my people, God’s people.
The coronavirus may compel people to look at the world and their place in it this year in a very different way.
In rabbinic literature, the biblical ideal of hessed encompasses mitzvot such as visiting the sick, burying the dead, comforting the mourner, and helping a bride and groom rejoice.
As the Ne’ila service closes out Yom Kippur, we become a better and more refined version of who we are.
The Yom Kippur War was characterized by ferocious firepower that cost our country 2,656 soldiers, at a time when our population was less than three million.
Two million Israelis have reported loss of income due to the crisis, and about 510,000 citizens have not yet returned to the labor market since the beginning of the corona crisis.
The Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen presents 400 years of Jewish life in Denmark.
IsraAid is different from other aid organizations that focus primarily on relief in the immediate aftermath of a humanitarian disaster.
Corey Gil-Shuster is trying to present a fresh, unadulterated view of the conflict through his YouTube channel.
Creativity has emerged as as the most sought-after human asset.
Am “Al het” of the shortcomings of a people returned to its land.
How a young Israeli family went off the grid and spent nearly a year crossing 4 continents and visiting 11 countries
The presence of a prayer partition separating men and women at the Western Wall sometimes caused some contretemps and Muslim protestations.
Experts share their fave family projects for fun DIY decorating
What if these people who believe in the Book of Life and prayers and the evil eye and salt over your shoulder are right and I’m wrong?
No matter how much we move toward peace, sadly, we’ll have to live with terror.
If the coronavirus crisis has taught us anything, it is that the assumptions we make, whether consciously or not, shape much of how we experience the world.
Some twenty years before the third cholera pandemic hit Russia, the inhabitants of Orsha (today in Belarus) turned to the Tzemach Tzedek with a plea for spiritual assistance.
On Rosh Hashanah you eat apples and honey, you hear the shofar, you spend long hours in shul. Giving gifts?
A look at surprising Jewish pastimes in past times
How did Jews celebrate the Jewish New Year in the midst of the most horrendous period in Jewish history?
Since I’m Orthodox, I can’t use technology during the holiday, so I’m left with toughing it out alone at home or braving what will certainly be a pared-down in-person service.
Will any of the prayers and poems that we recite on these holidays help us deal with these issues?
Priority should be given to hearing the shofar blowing over attending the rest of communal prayer.
Soon, each of us will begin our heshbon nefesh, our soul-searching.
Get into the Shabbat spirit with prayer, song, mysticism, meditation and words of Torah from around the world.
Why can’t we create a Yom Yerushalayim ritual that contrasts the suffering and the redemption, the dream and the fulfillment?
By being confirmed on Shavuot, a teenager in the 1940s was receiving and accepting the Torah as one of the chosen people.
This active opportunity to learn Torah and ask questions is the essence of what receiving the Torah is about.
It has not been easy, it has not been without pain and incredible sacrifice, but it has worked.
Stuchiner is a beacon of light in a world darkened by the coronavirus outbreak.
“Many people are deeply concerned that the challenges with which our people are wrestling today are leading to greater friction and division than ever before.”
In the 222 pages of the paperback, Peter Bailey tells the fascinating and heroic stories of all 40 recipients of the Medal of Valor
It is not easy for any society to maintain consistent adherence to the demands of its constitution.
Jews from Palestine – including my own father Harry – formed a Palestinian Jewish Diaspora in other parts of the world.
We found here a beautiful country, unique in the variety of its scenery and climate.
The uniqueness of Israeliana seems to be that it is the collection of material items produced by a society that may not have been wealthy, but had a powerful sense of ideology.
The curious case of Major Farran’s Hat
As old connections to Judaism fade, Zionism is turning into a primary manner Diaspora Jews relate to their Judaism.
As a child I felt that Talmud is a conversation that links people and creates joy and also has something different from everyday life, something higher and beautiful.
Rivlin says the coronavirus crisis ‘has made us feel more than ever that we are one family with a shared history, shared values and a shared destiny’
While the enemy may be different, “this is very similar to our usual work.”
The month of Iyar is filled with rich ideas focusing on time, making time count and improving who we are.
Why is it so important to face and embrace the past when it is filled with atrocities and pain? This is one of the main questions of the book.
The sages of Safed created amulets, the Jews of Italy wrote prayers and other Jews warned of less conventional plagues.
The Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz described Jewish practices in ways that made sense to me.
A painter of cities since the age of nine, Howard Fox combines Jewish art with a deep fascination with the realistic art tradition.
The key to survival right now (besides social-distancing and handwashing) is to ensure that the positive thoughts overwhelm the negative.
We frequently lack a sense of gratitude because we lack a proper sense of perspective.
What are aliyah organizations doing to help and how are olim coping?
A guide to some depictions of Passover on the big and small screen
The intermediate days of Passover are usually some of the most fun-filled times of the year in Israel, but this year, the music is online.
The story of Israeli wine epitomizes the historic transformation Judaism is going through.
This is going to be a Pesach like no other.
A physical descent can sometimes mask the tremendous energy and power encased in a person’s soul
For the 115 Ethiopians who made aliyah last month, their arrival is both a manifestation of a dream realized, but also bittersweet, as many family members are still in limbo back home.
Ahead of the Jewish people’s first “coronavirus Passover,” the legendary hero shares a message of hope
With the spread of coronavirus inducing worldwide panic, the public is starved for information more than ever; ‘Post’ editors reveal how they’re providing this essential service.
The 1998 animated film the Prince of Egypt tells the story of the Children of Israel’s leap of faith as they escaped bondage.
The story is about a process that contains both Exile and Redemption at every moment.
Jerusalem Foundation president Shai Doron is attempting to plan for the city’s long-term future once the crisis ends.
As deadly as the coronavirus has thus far proven to be, it does not even remotely approach other outbreaks.
Freelance journalist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein has spent the past five years chronicling distressed Jewish communities and their search for freedom.
A tiyyul to Israel’s South, even if it must necessarily be a virtual one, can help recall our ancestors’ Exodus from Egypt.
With the coronavirus outbreak, this year’s Passover will certainly be one to remember
The University of Haifa’s Clinics for Law and Social Change embarked on a mission to assess the mental health of refugees in Greece. The volunteers who listened to their stories are forever changed.
Generally, disagreements among family members about who remembers most accurately, do not end with serious consequences.
Especially during the coronavirus crisis, selling your chametz should be done easily online.
But as we are getting close to judging the Book of Esther unforgivingly ourselves, we must step back and look at the work as a referendum on how Godless politics are and how dangerous power can be.
Purim is a holiday meant for hiding our faces, but losing them isn't something anyone wants.
JPOST Digital Library
