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 The Four Sons: Four Blessings .: Viewed: 3037 times :.
כנגד אבעה בנים דברה תורה (הגדה של פסח) The four sons occupy a key place in the Haggadah. The author states their questions and then spells out the answers, both of which are based on Biblical texts. The Torah is realistic;...
Published: May 24, 2011 |
Is Hamas the Present-Day Amalek? .: Viewed: 3070 times :.
Over 6000 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel since the Gaza withdrawal and the expulsion of almost 10,000 Jews from their homes in the summer of 2005. This is including hundreds of missiles that were launched at Israel while the supposed truce between Hamas and Israel was in effect. Actually, it was a one-sided cease-fire. While we ceased, they continued to fire. Why does...
Published: May 24, 2011 |
Mordechai's Legacy: The Unique Jew .: Viewed: 3247 times :.
Why does the Megila say "a Jewish man was in the capital of Shushan and his name was Mordechai," when there were many Jewish people who lived in Shushan? The sages explain that many Jew fled Shushan out of fear of Haman; Mordechai was one of the few who did not. Rav Yonasan Eybeshitz disagrees with this interpretation, because later on in the Megila, Esther instructs Mordechai to "go and...
Published: May 24, 2011 |
Purim: G-d's Jigsaw Puzzle .: Viewed: 2994 times :.
Amazingly, G-d's Name does not appear in the Megillah – because precisely that is its lesson: G-d's ways are not always obvious. His miracles are most often not illuminated by lightning nor by thunder as by the Giving of the Torah. In the concisely written 167-verse Megillah, no seas split and no dry bones come to life. But in the truest sense, the greatest of all miracles is narrated in...
Published: May 24, 2011 |
How to Transform the Fast into a Feast .: Viewed: 3113 times :.
Four days a year Jews fast and mourn, commemorating different historical events of the destruction of the Holy Temple. The 17 th day of Tammuz is one of the four days, and it begins a three week period of limited mourning that climaxes with Tisha B'Av, the day of the destruction of the Temple. These four days of fasting are found in the prophet Zechariah. Consistent with Judaism's optimism,...
Published: May 24, 2011 |
Tisha Bav During The Second Temple: Feast or Fast? .: Viewed: 3026 times :.
The prophet Zechariah, who lived towards the end of the Babylonians exile after the destruction of the first Temple, says in chapter 8, that G-d tells him that all the feast commemorating the destruction of the Temple shall become to the house of Judah days of joy, gladness and holidays.
The Tamud explains this passage that all these fast days will become feast days when the Messiah comes....
Published: May 24, 2011 |
Tu BÂ’Av: Why the Celebration? .: Viewed: 3402 times :.
The Gemara says in Taanis (30b) that no days were more joyous for the Jewish people than the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur. What was so special about the Fifteenth of Av? There are several opinions in the Gemara. According to one opinion, this was the day on which those, killed in Beitar, were brought to burial. When the Romans slaughtered the people of Beitar, they left their corpses to rot...
Published: May 24, 2011 |
Is There Conflict Between Evolution And Judaism? .: Viewed: 2575 times :.
The Torah and science are completely compatible. Judaism insists that this world is not the result of an accident or blind chance but the result of a purposeful Act of Creation. Once the principle of Divine Creation is accepted Judaism allows much latitude in belief as to how the creation was effected. Â There is no religious objection to the acceptance of the Theory of Evolution provided it...
Published: October 17, 2007 |
Yom Kippur's Mystical Challenge .: Viewed: 2599 times :.
The common perception of Yom Kippur is the ultimate "Don't - Can't" experience. Don't eatDon't drinkCan't even wash your face. For most people, Yom Kippur is an ordeal that we have to get through, an exercise in self-denial that is even more constricting than Shabbat.  The long synagogue service and repeated emphasis on guilt and sin turn Yom Kippur into a day of awe and anxiety despair...
Published: September 19, 2007 |
Does The Halacha Permit Us To Ascend The Temple Mount .: Viewed: 4028 times :.
Does Jewish law permit us to ascend the Temple Mount today? This may seem only like a halachic question, but it has far reaching political consequences as well. Shortly after the Six Day War in June 1967, the Chief Rabbinate posted a large sign at the entrance to the Temple Mount stating that it is forbidden to enter the Temple Mount according to halacha. This prohibition was reiterated...
Published: August 29, 2007 |
Mystical Message Of Sacrifices .: Viewed: 2322 times :.
The question of animal sacrifices during Temple times is something that can be difficult for us to understand today. According to Ramban (Nachmanides) the primary purpose of the sacrifice was that by being involved in the slaughter of an animal, the sinner bringing it would experience death vicariously. When the Kohen (priest) slaughtered the animal and burned it on the Altar, the aim was that...
Published: April 2, 2007 |
The Educational Message of the Ten Plagues .: Viewed: 3029 times :.
We are all aware from the Haggadah of Pesach of R’ Yehudah’s having abrreviated the ten plagues as דצ '' ך ( Detzach), עד '' ש ( Adash), באח '' ב (Be’achav). However, what’s his point? Abarbanel finds a surprising distinction between these three groups that emerge and therefore attributes a...
Published: March 28, 2007 |
Esther's Purim Role VS. the High Priest on Yom Kippur .: Viewed: 3083 times :.
Purim comes from the word "Pur", meaning lottery in Persian. This name comes from Megillat Esther: "...therefore, they called these days Purim, because of the lottery." The method in which Purim was given this name is different from the methods used in giving names to the other holidays. The names of all other holidays incorporate, in some respect, the miracle which took place on that holiday....
Published: February 28, 2007 |
Tu B'Shvat: Why the Torah Compares a Human Being to a Tree .: Viewed: 2959 times :.
The source for Tu B'Shvat is the opening Mishnah of the Talmudic Tractate Rosh Hashana: "The Academy of Hillel taught that the 15th of Shvat is the New Year for the Trees." Â What does that mean, "New Year for the Trees?" Â Tu B'Shvat is technically the day when trees stop absorbing water from the ground and instead draw nourishment from their sap. In Halacha, this means that fruit which has...
Published: January 31, 2007 |
The Agony Of Agunot .: Viewed: 2644 times :.
"Kotzo Shel Yod" ("The Point on Top of the Yod"), the 1887 poem by Judah Leib Gordon, includes a description of the cruel harassment by rabbis of an unfortunate agunah (literally, a "chained woman," whose husband deserts her or disappears without divorcing her, thus preventing her from remarrying). Â The description is vitriolic, wicked, dishonest, and disgraceful, in the spirit of the poets...
Published: December 27, 2006 |