by Rabbi Shlomo Freundlich | Apr 17, 2019 | Beginner
As the holiday of Passover approaches we become ever so careful to halachically (according to Jewish law) sensitize our homes and rid them of every trace and vestige of chometz (leaven, that food which is forbidden to own or derive benefit from on Passover). This is...
by Rabbi Eliezer Ginzburg | Mar 19, 2019 | Beginner
“That is why they called these days ‘Purim’ from the word ‘pur’.” (Esther 9:26) The commentator Bnei Yisas’char wonders why Mordechai and his rabbinical court decided to call the festival “Purim” after the lot...
by Rabbi Yisroel Miller | Sep 27, 2018 | Beginner
The Torah does not provide explicit reasons for every mitzvah (commandment) and, especially for the negative commandments, we do not have definitive explanations why the Torah prohibits wearing mixtures of wool and linen, eating meat with milk, etc. But for positive...
by Rabbi Paysach Krohn | Sep 20, 2018 | Beginner
Rabbi Shammai Parnes is one of the principal rabbis of the Israeli army. He is a deeply religious man who descends from a long line of Jerusalem families. This story took place during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when the Israelis were caught by surprise and attacked...
by Steven Weil | Jul 19, 2018 | Beginner
It was the saddest day of the year. I sat on the cold, hard floor with hundreds of fellow Jews, hungry, thirsty and unshaven. Together we mourned the destruction of Jerusalem, studying Lamentations, the haunting words of Jeremiah the Prophet. For six straight hours we...
