New Beginnings
Sep 13, 2008 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
September marks new beginnings. Summer’s over, school years have begun, heavy traffic has returned to the roads, the new cultural season is underway.
Read MoreLighting the Way
Dec 15, 2001 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Hanukkah
The traditional greeting for Hanukkah, Hag Urim Sameah, Happy Festival of Lights, speaks to the essence of our holiday observance — urim — which is the plural of the Hebrew ‘or’ meaning light. Indeed, rabbinic commentary underscores this plurality of light in alluding to three different and complementary sources of light: a light of creation, a light of revelation, and a light of redemption.
Read MoreNot by Might
Dec 11, 1993 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Miketz | Hanukkah
It is a remarkable tribute to the genius of the Jewish calendar that parashat mikaytz always coincides with Shabbat Hanukkah. The contents of both, I shall argue, deserve to be linked.
But let me start off on a personal note. Hanukkah has always held a special meaning for me and my family. On November 3, 1938, I turned three. Six days later, on the infamous night of Kristallnacht, the Nazis unleashed their fury on the synagogues of Germany, including the magnificent Romanesque synagogue of my father in Hanover. Like thousands of other prominent Jews, he was carted off to a concentration camp, to be released only two weeks later when family in England secured a visa for us with the help of the Chief Rabbi, Joseph Hertz, known to you best as the editor of the Hertz Humash.
Read MoreThe Gift of Change
Oct 1, 2011 By Charlie Schwartz | Commentary | Yom Kippur
What in this world is set in stone, and what can be changed? As the seasons shift and we approach Yom Kippur, these questions become more relevant, more powerful. It is these questions that this week’s midrash seeks to answer.
Read MoreBetween Hope and Doubt
Oct 15, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Sukkot
After the High Holy Days, I sometimes feel torn between feelings of hope and feelings of doubt regarding humanity’s prospects for improvement. At the very least, it helps me to know that our ancient Sages understood this emotional tension.
Read MoreTears for the Temples
Dec 31, 2011 By David Levy | Commentary | Text Study | Hanukkah
Reading this makes me think of the breaking of the glass during a Jewish wedding ceremony. In a moment of sheer joy at the marriage, we break a glass to remember the Temple and that our joy cannot be complete in light of its destruction. Here, too, the Rabbis imagine, Joseph and Benjamin cannot fully enjoy their moment with the foreknowledge that the Temples will be destroyed.
Read MoreRemembering to Forget
Mar 3, 2012 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Shabbat Zakhor
How does one recall something that we are ultimately supposed to forget? That is one of the great paradoxes found in the Torah reading for Shabbat Zakhor and later reflected in a rabbinic tradition that stems from the midrash above.
Read MoreThe Difference a Day Can Make
Oct 3, 2014 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Yom Kippur
Wouldn’t it be grand to wipe the slate clean? What if there were a day in the calendar when the slate was simply wiped clean once again? No marks against you. No petty quarrels remembered, no grudges borne, no more grievances for trespasses petty or grievous. What if?
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