“Now Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, laid incense on it, and offered before God alien fire, which had not been enjoined upon them. And fire issued forth from God and consumed them. Thus, they died at the instance...

With this week's Torah portion the third book of the Torah, Vayikra ("[God] called [to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting]..."), is read. Vayikra is also called Torat Cohanim in Hebrew, which corresponds to the name most commonly known, "Leviticus."...

Shalom Chaverim! This year, we have something of an anomaly on the Jewish calendar. In most years, the Torah portions of Vayakhel and Pekudei are read in tandem with one another; meaning that we have a double selection chanted in our Synagogues...

In Tetzaveh, this week’s Torah portion, we learn that the High Priest was to wear a headdress to which a gold frontlet inscribed with “Holy to the Eternal” was attached by a blue cord. One might ask: Why was this gold frontlet attached to the...

In honor of Halloween,  we retell the controversial tale of the Witch of Endor, featuring Saul, the handsome but historically inept first king of Israel. The language in the Torah is pretty clear about the crimes of sorcery and witchcraft, and that...

If you have been paying close attention to social media or advertisements on television, you have noticed that as summer began, more and more people returned to traveling. This is due in large part, of course, to the fact that, overall, people...

It was called the Miracle on Ice. I remember watching the United States ice hockey team made up of scrappy and determined amateurs and college students defeat the Soviet Union in the Olympic semifinals. It was 1980 in Lake Placid, N.Y. The Soviet...

After I graduated from college, I spent a year working for Facing History and Ourselves, an international organization whose mission is to use lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.One of Facing History’s...

Ultra Orthodox Jewish men pray as they gather for the ritual of Tisha B'Av at the Meah Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem, August 13, 2016. The Tisha B'Av ceremony, literally the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebraic calendar, is the darkest day...

As the days get colder and the leaves begin to turn colors, it’s that time of year again.For some, it is the beginning of football season and hoodie weather. However, to the Jewish community, it has a deeper intensity. It’s the holiest time of the...

GODFREY, Ill. — I have been in this place before. On this Friday night, Aug. 16,  I am worshipping with a small, tight-knit congregation that is soon to be no more. This Kabbalat Shabbat service is bittersweet. Tonight Temple Israel of Godfrey, Ill.,...

Rabbi Moshe Shulman and his son Yechiel at the U.S. Finals of the Chidon HaTanach, or “Bible Quiz,” a worldwide contest run annually by the Jewish Agency. Yechiel, a student at Epstein Hebrew Academy, won first place in the contest’s eighth-grade...