


Why don’t Jews celebrate New Year’s on January 1st?
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz While the entire world is celebrating, bringing in the new year, Jews are more subdued. Everyone else is flipping their calendars from 2022 to 2023, but the Hebrew calendar is already a quarter of the way through 5783. Why do the Jews have a...
The Omer Wave Offering
The Omer, a biblical measurement of approximately 43 ounces, refers to the wave offering of barley that was brought to the Temple along with a sacrifice of a lamb. Before Passover, emissaries of the Sanhedrin would go out to the field of barley and tie the grain into...
The Fast of the Firstborn
On the eve of Passover, firstborn sons fast from sunrise to sunset in commemoration of the salvation of the Israelite firstborns during the Plague of the Firstborn in Egypt. Unlike all other Jewish fast days, only firstborn children are required to fast on the Fast of...
The “Great Sabbath”
The Shabbat that precedes Pesach (Passover) is called ‘Shabbat HaGadol’ (the big/great Sabbath). There are several reasons for this. According to Jewish tradition, the first Shabbat HaGadol was the last Shabbat (Find out more about the laws of Shabbat) that the Jews...