Holiday Tisha B’Av Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of Av, commemorates the destruction of the first (587 BCE) and second (70 CE) Temples in Jerusalem, the exile of the Jews from the Land of Israel and Jewish tragedies and suffering throughout the ages. The Scroll of Lamentations, describing the horrors that accompanied the destruction of the first Temple, is read publicly at the beginning of the fast. Because fasting on Shabbat is prohibited (with the exception of Yom Kippur) when this fast falls on a Saturday it is postponed to Sunday. Read More
Post The Sin of Superficiality Though all Israelis are fully focused on winning the war against Hamas, some are quietly beginning to wonder: how could this have happened? “How has Hashem covered with a cloud… Read More
Page Biblical Insights The Hebrew Bible is commonly known as the Tanakh which stands for Torah (the Five Books of Moses), Neviim (the Prophets) and Ketuvim (the Writings). The Israel Bible consists of… Read More
Post Through the Ashes Picture this: a city, once pulsing with the vibrant heartbeat of a people, lying in ruins, its heartbeat silenced. This was the fate of Jerusalem when the Jewish Temples were… Read More
Bible Basic Jeremiah Jeremiah was a righteous prophet who lived during the tragic final years of Israel’s southern kingdom of Judah. During that time, he called on the nation to repent as he warned of the impending destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, but to no avail. While Jeremiah is known as the prophet of doom, his prophecies also contain much promise. Jeremiah authored the Book of Lamentations as a reaction to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple at the hand of the Babylonians. Read More
Post A Sabbath of Vision What if you could travel back in time, not merely to observe, but to rectify the past and reshape the future? The annual observance of Shabbat Chazon, “the Sabbath of… Read More
Post The Multifaceted Nature of Prayer There is an urban myth that Eskimos have 50 words for snow. I don’t know if that is true, but I do know that there are a lot of different… Read More
Post Respond to Suffering Like King David Throughout our lives, either for reasons we create, or for reasons unbeknownst to us, we experience tragedies, feel pain and suffer. Why?  This Jobian question disturbs us throughout our period… Read More