by Rabbi Emanuel Feldman | Jul 15, 2021 | Beginner
Tisha B’Av is not everyone’s favorite day, but it is one of mine — not because it is enjoyable, but because of what it represents. I like Tisha B’Av because of what it says to me about Jews: that we are a people that remembers and knows its...
by Rabbi Emanuel Feldman | Feb 23, 2021 | Beginner
Poor Purim. It has become the Jewish mardi gras, a day of revelry, drinking, and masquerades. But it is much more than this. Purim is the holiday in hiding. One has to probe beneath the surface to find the spiritual dimension that lies underneath. In fact, the...
by Rabbi Emanuel Feldman | Sep 16, 2020 | Beginner
Tishrei, the month of Rosh Hashana, is the first month of the universe, and just as when G-d completed His Creation He contemplated and evaluated it, so does He do every Rosh Hashana — which means that Rosh Hashana is actually the Day of Judgment for the...
by Rabbi Beryl Gershenfeld | Apr 2, 2020 | Beginner
In most families, the joy of Passover is remembered as a simple drama played out by the children: the stealing of the afikoman. On Pesach even the drowsiest child’s attention is riveted to the Seder table and to the afikoman’s every movement. From the...
by Rabbi Avi Shafran | Oct 7, 2019 | Beginner
From the flurry of e-mails and calls to Agudath Israel and other Orthodox Jewish organizations, it seems that some advocates for humane treatment of animals have concerns about the pre-Yom Kippur custom of Kapparos. They are troubled by the fact that many Orthodox...
