“And the Almighty spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you mount the lamps, let the seven lamps give light at the front of the lampstand.” (Numbers 8:1-2) All too often, I hear from my students about how “irrelevant and anachronistic”...

What happens when we look at a painting?  We see a familiar world through the eyes and brushstrokes of another, and suddenly it looks different from the way we normally see it. Poetry uses words we know to create unexpected images and comparisons...

Now that summer is upon us, it’s time to get ready for what is commonly considered the best holiday on the Jewish calendar: Shavuot. Coming seven weeks after Passover (Shavuot means “weeks” in Hebrew), Shavuot begins this year at nightfall on June...

The holiday of Shavuot is almost upon us, and here in Israel the country is opening up steadily day by day, bringing new festivity into the air. This will be the first chance for many families to celebrate a holiday together since Tu Bishvat in February,...

This week, the world over, we will be reading and studying the Torah portion of Bechukotai, which is drawn from the Book of Leviticus. Our weekly Parashah opens with the words: “If you follow My CHUKIM (statutes) and faithfully observe My MITZVOT...

What is Jewish time? I am not referring to our supposed casual approach to arriving at appointments or even at synagogue services. Rather, how do our spiritual teachers understand the nature of time? Rabbi Gershon Winkler teaches that “time...

Lag b’Omer begins tonight (May 18) at sunset. It’s a bit of a weird holiday because it commemorates a number: the 33rd day of the Omer, the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot. Lag b’Omer is also an oddity because there’s no real consensus...

Lag B’Omer will be celebrated this Thursday. The name of the holiday means “the 33rd day of the Omer,” a period that begins on the second day of Passover. Counting the Omer historically references the harvesting of the new barley crop to be brought...

This Shabbat, we will read Parashat Emor from the Book of Leviticus. Like many of the other Parshiot in this section of the Chumash, Emor highlights the special responsibilities and obligations placed upon the Kohanim, the Priestly Class of Ancient Israel. One...

God spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Eternal your God, am holy.” This, to me, is the essence of our heritage. The simple beauty of these two verses declare that...

We begin with sadness in this portion. And so the maqam, the musical figure in our communities of the eastern Mediterranean  associated with this portion, is maqam hijaz. A maqam is a musical figure, a partial scale, a modal form. The word maqam is a...