Protagonists of the Iberian age included scholars, translators, mapmakers, instrument makers and pilots. Among them, one figure deserves particular remembrance near Columbus Day: Abraham Zacuto, a Jewish astronomer born in Salamanca around 1452.
The Talmud, in tractate Sukkah, discusses constructing a sukkah on an elephant. The Biblical Museum of Natural History in Israel made it happen. “It’s hard to avoid talking about the elephant in the room, which is literally the elephant in the room,” said Rabbi Natan Slifkin, the museum director known as the “zoo rabbi.”
Yom Kippur break-the-fast has ballooned into a significant event in the Jewish calendar. Though menus have become more extravagant, for many Ashkenazi Jews, the heart of the meal are the classics — bagels, smoked fish, blintzes and cake.
When Tzvike and Hadas Ophir planted their vineyard in 1986, on the day their eldest daughter Adva was born, they had no plans to make wine. They wanted to grow something alongside their bee hives. The couple was among the first residents of Alon HaGalil, a town in Israel’s North about an hour-and-a-half drive from Tel Aviv. Tzvike grew up in Emek Hefer and Hadas in Kfar Yehoshua, both in farming families. Tzvike was also a second-generation beekeeper.
Prayer notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem over the past six months have been removed and taken for burial, as is customary every year ahead of the Jewish High Holidays.
Raacheli Fried, a Los Angeles native and resident of East Denver, organized a “Tehillim group,” a Psalms group, 11 years ago. People in the group recite Psalms for many reasons, among them a “complete healing,” a refuah shelemah, for sick people. A Tehillim group may also be organized to pray for a single person, as Essie Fleischmann has done.
When Penny Nisson is in synagogue, she prays with the words in the siddur and the melodies of the liturgy. When she is in her art studio, she prays with her paintbrush. Nisson is a spiritual person who loves and lives Judaism. She and her husband Perry incorporate Jewish ritual into their home and they are regulars at East Denver Orthodox Synagogue. Penny Nissan sits in the front at shul, reading, reciting and hearing the words of prayer.
As Shavuot approaches and the anniversary of the revelation of the Torah looms, it is inspiring to contemplate the teachings of those who mastered the Torah on a level that is beyond us. One such master was the Vilna Gaon, the “Genius of Vilna,” Rabbi Elijah son of Shlomo Zalman (d. 1797).
I like the confluence this year of Shavuot falling during Jewish American Heritage Month (inaugurated on the 350th anniversary of Jews arriving in New Amsterdam) — because the classic Shavuot cheesecake is actually an American invention. You know the one — smooth, dense, a light tang and absolutely decadent. A first bite that, like Proust’s Madeleines, is transportive.
Every Holocaust survivor has a compelling, usually terrifying tale. Agi Day’s tale began in 1941 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, when she was one year old. When asked how old she was before realizing the gravity of her situation, Day replies: “Four. I’m a child of war, and children of war experience things very differently than children of peace.”
PASSOVER EDITION 5786 SECTION C PAGE 10 By Jessica Russak-Hoffman Some Jews are opting to personalize their Passover liturgy and accessorize it. Shelley Atlas Serber, a graphic designer in West …
The National Library of Israel has received the original version of a modern masterpiece of Hebrew manuscript illumination as a gift from Trudy Elbaum Gottesman and Robert Gottesman.
It’s Tu b’Shevat on Feb. 2 — the birthday of the trees. The Nosher joins with Jewish National Fund to celebrate with a babka made with the “seven species.” To date JNF has planted 240 million trees in Israel, making Israel one of only two countries to enter the 21st century with more trees than it had in 1900.
New York City eateries roll out their Chanukah doughnut offerings, including sufganiyot filled with flavors like pistachio cream or mango, bakery owners said that customers continue to overwhelmingly demand classic jelly doughnuts, such as strawberry and raspberry.
Not everyone can have his own sukkah due to rules of apartment dwelling, rules of construction, weather-related issues and other practical reasons. So, the next best thing is visiting someone else’s sukkah. Find a friend, neighbor, synagogue, Hillel or Chabad house. Don’t go empty-handed, though! Bring a dish that highlights fall produce, such as squash and pumpkin, pomegranates and apples.
By Melinda Strauss, via the Nosher On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, it’s traditional to eat sweet foods like apples dipped in honey or date syrup (silan) to symbolize …
Regarding Shavuot — when Jews from around the world celebrate the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai — Rabbi Chayim Vital wrote on behalf of his master Rabbi Isaac Luria (“the Arizal”), “Know that one who does not sleep at all on this night, even for one moment, but immerses himself in the Torah the entire night, can be assured that he will live out his year. No injury will befall him during this year.”
Where do you pray? In shul, in the company of fellow congregants, with the interactive quotient that so many prefer? Or, is it your preference to pray in private, at home, in nature, or elsewhere? Of all of the choices, where — and how — we pray, is so very personal. In many cases, it is rooted simply in family tradition; we do what has been innate since our youth.
Not far from Rabbi Menachem Siderson’s grasp is a highly-protected metal case that includes essential items of his trade: four feather quills (from a turkey or a duck), packets of cloth adhesive protective tape, a bottle of Nahari ink, a surgical scalpel and rolls of gidim.
Shavuot 5785 Two weeks before Shavuot, chef and cookbook author Jamie Geller, who is now the spokesperson of Aish HaTorah, set out with her team — including the writer of …
The accompanying illustration is a reflection of what we’re going through these days during the Counting of the Omer, when we count each day (for seven full weeks) from the …
Considering that the State of Israel was born in 1948, it’s fascinating to witness how the country’s culture has evolved in less than a century, embracing traditions that honor both its past and future. This is Israel’s 77th Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) — just 77 years old, yet carrying millennia of history on its shoulders.
Have you ever wondered what clothes Holocaust survivors put on immediately after they were liberated? Or where they spent their first few nights? A tallit worn by the late Zesa Starr, who was liberated from Dachau, provides answers.
Peter Laszlo Lantos’ latest book about surviving the Holocaust is the latest sign of a growing trend in Holocaust education and Holocaust literature: the People of the Book have become the People of the Graphic Novel.