By Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose
• Published April 14, 2020
“And Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, each took his offering pan, put fire in it, placed incense upon it, and brought before God a foreign fire, which God had not commanded. And a fire went forth from before God and consumed them both, and they died...
BOSTON (JTA) — Miriam the Prophetess, Elijah the Prophet and the Four Questions take center stage among this spring’s crop of new Passover books for kids penned by some of today’s best writers.The sparkling assortment includes stories by Jane Yolen,...
By Ellie S. Grossman, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published April 2, 2020
Passover is a cherished Jewish holiday that celebrates our journey from the bitterness of slavery to the sweetness of freedom, a paradoxical theme amidst the plague of COVID-19. During this global pandemic, we are socially distant and socially isolated,...
When we asked readers to send us unique and/or interesting stories about their favorite seder plate, we weren’t sure what we would get back. But luckily, a few had some entertaining tales to tell.From Gay Goldenberg, 72, of Town & Country, a B’nai Amoona...
By Rabbi Andrea Goldstein
• Published April 2, 2020
The Book of Leviticus, especially the first few portions, are filled with intricate details of the many types sacrifices God commanded the Israelites to make. In Hebrew, the word for sacrifice is korban, which comes from a Hebrew root, meaning “to draw...
(JTA) — Social distancing, stress, fear, a real-life plague — Passover amid the COVID-19 outbreak is shaping up to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. As many Jews across the country and the world prepare to hold seders on their own, apart from family...
(J. The Jewish News of Northern California) — How long does a seder really have to be? “No, we can’t just say ‘They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!” I tell my daughters. There’s some negotiation until I promise it’ll be 10 minutes....
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published March 26, 2020
I hear Leviticus speaking. Leviticus and Dante got together in the form of a virus, a nonlocal reminder in the language of Leviticus – purity and impurity — that all of us are in this together. I hear Deuteronomy speaking. We will be judged by the...
By Margi Lenga Kahn, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published March 26, 2020
What frightening and challenging times we are living in, when our daily lingo now includes “social distancing,” “self-quarantining” and “sheltering in place.”One of the four questions asked each year at the Passover seder is, “How is this...
(JTA) — Rena Munster was looking forward to hosting a Passover seder for the first time.In past years, her parents or another relative hosted the meal. But this year she had invited her parents, siblings and other extended family to her Washington,...
We have been reading this richly symbolic section of the Torah on the Mishkan, the mobile sacred dwelling place for the Divine Presence. As we complete the reading of the instructions in Parashat Ki Tissa, it is worth thinking about how we create the...
Is every mitzvah, every commandment equally important? In some sense, of course — if we understand God as the source of mitzvot, commandments, then every mitzvah is an equal opportunity to obey or disobey God and God’s will for us. And plus,...
