Mimouna: A Post-Passover Celebration
Though originating and celebrated widely in the Sephardic community (Jews of Mediterranean background), a small number of North American Ashkenazi Jews (those of Eastern European background) have...
View ArticleHol Hamoed: The Intermediate Days of Passover
The intermediate (hol) festival days (hamoed) — days three through six or two through six in Israel and for the Reform –have a special designation. Although they are not full festivals, they are still...
View ArticleWhy Dairy on Shavuot?
Although everyone agrees that the food of choice for Shavuot is cheese, most typically blintzes, or a Sephardic equivalent such as bourekas, there are differences of opinion (some quite charming) as to...
View ArticleShavuot Decorations
Synagogues and homes are traditionally adorned with fresh greens and flowers in honor of the holiday that occurs in the spring. Small trees, leafy or flowering plants, boughs, and floral arrangements...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finding Meaning in the Omer
For the Israelites, the holiday of Shavuot was the culmination of the process of transcending innate, animal nature to liberate the human being. As we learn at Passover, the release from physical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tikkun Leil Shavuot
Following the Shavuot holiday meal, many people proceed to synagogue for Ma’ariv [the evening service], followed by an all-night (or into-the-night, as many last only until midnight) Torah study...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shavuot Hymns
Excerpted from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook. Reprinted with permission from Jason Aronson Inc. On the first day of Shavuot, a special hymn is recited responsively by the reader and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Special Challot
Excerpted from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook. Reprinted with permission from Jason Aronson Inc. As for most holidays, special designs were devised for the traditional braided bread. A...
View ArticleShavuot in Modern Times
Early in the 19th century, the German Reform movement, which had eliminated bar mitzvah as the “coming of age” ceremony for its 13-year-old boys, instituted a new initiation into Jewish responsibility...
View ArticleYom Ha’atzmaut Liturgy
There is a wide variety of ways in which Jewish communities religiously commemorate Israel’s Independence Day, many involving special prayers for the day. The following article surveys some customs...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finding Meaning After the Holocaust
Excerpted from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook. Reprinted with permission from Jason Aronson Inc. [Some] ultra-Orthodox [leaders] asserted that rather than destroying it, the Holocaust...
View ArticleHow the Holocaust Challenged Faith
Religion attempts to make sense out of the world around us, finding order and meaning in what often seems chaotic and meaningless. Nothing has shaken the foundation of our religion like the chaotic and...
View ArticleThe Importance of Remembering
We always talk about remembering in conjunction with the Holocaust. Remember the six million. The world must remember so that a holocaust can never again happen. Remember those who perished in order to...
View ArticleGrief & Opportunity
Have you ever been in a relationship that ended? Or watched a great chance come and go? Or made a choice you later wished you could reverse? How many times in your life have you said “I should have” or...
View ArticleShabbat Hazon & Shabbat Nahamu
The Sabbaths surrounding the Ninth of Av carry a clear message relating to the holiday. The prophetic readings for the three weeks preceding the holiday–the first two from Jeremiah and the third from...
View ArticleKinot for Tisha B’Av
Instead of the regular siddur [prayer book] we use a special prayer book for Tisha B’Av, Kinot (Elegies), which contains the prayer services (Maariv, Shachrit and Mincha , the evening, morning, and...
View ArticleThe Fast of the First Born
The sunrise to sunset ta’anit (fast) bekhorim (of the firstborn) is the only fast that applies to just a segment of the community: all males who are the firstborn children in their families (if the...
View ArticleThe Fast of Esther
A day of fasting from sunrise to sunset is supposed to be observed on the day before Purim (Adar 13). It ostensibly commemorates the fast Mordecai and Esther endured, which Esther instituted among all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tashlich, the Symbolic Casting Off of Sins
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Jews traditionally proceed to a body of running water, preferably one containing fish, and symbolically cast off their sins. The Tashlich ceremony includes reading...
View ArticleShavuot in Medieval Times
Excerpted from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook. Reprinted with permission of the publisher (Jason Aronson Inc). In the weeks before Shavuot in 1096 the Crusades began, claiming hundreds...
View Article
