Eleh Ezkera: The Midrash of the Ten Martyrs
Eleh Ezkera-The Midrash of the Ten Martyrs is a book published to awaken the masses to atone for their sins. This English volume, with the Hebrew original text (without vowels) on facing pages, brings to life an ancient story for the modern reader. Eleh Ezkera is the most moving part of the Yom Kippur (Day […]
Title of “To Kill A Mockingbird” Sequel Has Biblical Source
55 years after the debut of her iconic first novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, reclusive author Harper Lee has published its sequel, Go Set a Watchman, whose title is derived from a biblical verse in the Book of Isaiah. Lee, a native Southerner, has had a strong connection with the Bible since she was a child. […]
Temple Mt. Activist Yehudah Glick in Turkey for Ramadan Peace Mission
Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick is currently in Istanbul, Turkey, meeting with Muslim religious leaders and joining as an honored guest in celebration of the month-long holiday of Ramadan. Several leading religious figures and muftis had reached out to Glick, inviting him to visit Turkish mosques and participate in joint public condemnations of terror […]
How it Might Play Out, Part II
Sirens screamed everywhere. They were not the air raid sirens around Israel, but those too would start soon. These ones told pilots of the multi-nation force to man their planes and take for the skies. This occurred on land and at sea. Someone high-up made the call. The war was on. The Israelis already knew what was […]
How it Might Play Out
Very little is ever what it seems to be on the outside. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes a bad one. That’s why there is a mitzvah to judge a person to the side of merit: what we see is rarely the whole story, or even just part of it. Who are Gog and Magog? […]
What is the Shemitta Year All About?
This year, from Sept. 25, 2014 through Sept. 13, 2015, Jews in Israel observe the laws of Shemitta, the Sabbatical year, set forth in the Scriptures (Leviticus 25), requiring us to completely desist from cultivating our fields. During this year we relinquish personal ownership of our crops, and whatever produce does grow on its own […]
Rav Aharon Lichtenstein ztz”l: Four Vignettes
Lessons from a Giant He was considered to be one of the greatest rabbis of this generation. His complete mastery of the entire gamut of Torah and Talmud reflected a level of proficiency that is possessed by only a few in this generation. His PhD from Harvard in English literature was a testament to his […]
Paul Shaffer: The Mensch
When David Letterman steps down from his Late Show, his musical director and comic foil for the last 33 years will do the same. Paul Shaffer, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Grammy winning musician and bandleader will be moving on. The millions of viewers who enjoyed kicking back night after night to his muscular […]
48 Years of Celebrating Jerusalem’s Unity and Liberation!
It was 48 years ago this coming week that the IDF, with great heroism and Divine providence, liberated the Jewish People’s historic holy capital. This led, within a very short time, to its official unification under Jewish sovereignty for the first time in nearly 1,900 years. Thus was closed a historic national and religious […]
The Holiday of Second Chances
The holiday of second chances, more commonly known as Pesach Sheni, means the second Passover. It is the holiday that gives Jews the opportunity to perform the mitzvah, deed, of giving the Passover offering if they missed it 30 days before. Pesach Sheni originated at the time of the Exodus, when the burial society that […]