The stargazers predicted that Rabbi Akiva’s daughter would be bitten by a poisonous snake on her wedding day. The great sage now faced a cruel question: How to contend with such a prophecy? The Talmud tells of his choice, and how his daughter ultimately saved herself, unlike a certain Sleeping Beauty…
There was a time when Israeli greeting cards designed to celebrate the Jewish New Year were the most common mail item in the country. These charming postcards expressed the sentiments of their time in every Jewish home in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world
The concept of Shemittah – the Jewish Sabbatical Year – includes among other things a provision to release people from debts owed to others. Though clearly a noble and moral sentiment, such a law can easily lead to problematic situations and even exploitation. Levi Cooper delves into one possible solution to this issue, provided by a 2000 year-old legal loophole…
Border smuggling, dancing, and prayer – What did Breslov Hasidim do when war made their annual trip to Uman a true matter of life and death?
Sent 80 years ago, on the day World War II broke out, the greeting recently surfaced
You really should listen to your mother when she tells you not to read at the dinner table…
What is the Freudian complex behind the origins of this mysterious instrument? What is the shofar’s connection to the High Holy Days? And does it have anything to do with music?
Take a musical voyage through three melodies written to different verses from the “Avinu Malkeinu” prayer, embarking from the widespread Ashkenazi tune, passing through a familiar Chassidic niggun and ending with Max Janowski’s melody.
The Catalan Mahzor survived the edict of expulsion from Spain, was smuggled out of Nazi Germany to the United States, and eventually found its way to the National Library in Jerusalem.
