How, when, and where should we light Hanukka candles?
WHERE SHOULD WE LIGHT THE CANDLES?
We light the Hanukka candles to express our recognition and gratitude to HaShem for the miracles He performed for...
HANUKKA: The blessings and prayers when lighting the candles
This year, Sunday night, December 14, 2025, corresponding to the 25th of Kislev, 5786, we will light the first candle of Hanukka.
The celebration of...
VAYISHLACH: Sexual Harassment in the Tora
(Written in Dec 2017)
THE INNOCENCE OF DINA (pronounced: Deena)
The Tora tells us about cases of sexual abuse and sexual corruption.
This week's Parasha, for example,...
THANKSGIVING: A Sepharadic Approach
Sephardic Jews, the first Jews to arrive in America in the middle of the 17th century, first settled in New York, then known as...
VAYETSE: The First Thanksgiving
A BRIEF HISTORY OF A NAME
The Jewish people were not always called by this name. In the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, three names appear...
HAGOMEL: The Jewish Thanksgiving
ארבעה חייבים להודות: יורדי הים, הולכי מדבריות, ומי שהיה חולה ונתרפא, ומי שהיה חבוש בבית האסורים – ויצא.
(ברכות נד ע"ב)
Our Rabbis taught that there...
SUMMARY OF PARASHAT VAYETSE
Jacob leaves Beer-Sheba and heads to Haran, Syria. He is fleeing from his brother Esau, who sets out to kill him. He also goes...
THANKSGIVING: A perspective from the 19th Century
Rabbi Sabato Morais (1823–1897), one of the major Orthodox figures of nineteenth-century America, saw the United States as a place where Jewish life could...
The Jewish Origins of Thanksgiving
CAN JEWS CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING?
In 1789, in response to a resolution offered by Congressman Elias Boudinot of New Jersey, President George Washington issued a proclamation...
Judaism and The Age of Disclosure
I have never had any “extraterrestrial” experiences: I was not abducted by a UFO, I did not see strange lights in the sky, and...
SUMMARY OF PARASHAT TOLEDOT
HAVING A CHILD…. OR TWO…
Parashat Toledot tells us that our second patriarch, Isaac, prayed for his wife Ribka, who was barren, to conceive. God...
TOLEDOT: Jacob, Esav, and The State of Israel
THE NEW GENERATION
In this week's Parasha, we meet the second generation of the Jewish people: Isaac, Ribqa, and their children. At the center of...
TOLEDOT: Nothing new under the sun of Gaza
EFFORT AND BLESSING
In this week's Parsha, Genesis chapter 26, we read that Isaac had to leave his land due to famine and came to...
CHAYE SARA: How To Make Friends And Influence People
שמענו אדני נשיא אלקים אתה בתוכנו
In this week’s Parasha, Chaye Sara, we meet Abraham, our first patriarch, in a long conversation with the Hittites,...
CHAYE SARA: Finding a wife for Isaac
This week's Parasha is about the last days of Abraham Abinu. After taking care of the burial of his wife Sarah, Abraham has a...
SUMMARY OF CHAYE SARA
Our Parasha begins by recounting that Sara passes away at the age of 127. Abraham, determined to honor his wife with the highest dignity,...
CHAYE SARA: The Beginning Of Prayer
ONE CREATOR
Abraham Abinu discovered God by observing Creation. "There must be an Intelligent Creator," Abraham reasoned, Someone who brought this wonderful world into existence...
Halloween and Abraham Abinu
Halloween is celebrated in the United States and many other countries around the world on the night of October 31st. People place pumpkins and...
LEKH LEKHA: Why Abraham?
This week's Parasha begins with a Divine call to our patriarch Abraham, "Lekh Lekha": Leave your land and go to the land that I will...
When Was The Sun Really Created?
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱ-לֹהִים יְהִי מְאֹרֹת —
Rashi:
לא נבראו ביום רביעי, אלא ביום ראשון נבראו, וברביעי צִוָּה עליהם לִתְלוֹתָם בָּרָקִיעַ, ולשמש במלאכתם.וַיֹּאמֶר אֱ-לֹהִים יְהִי מְאֹרֹת —
“And God said: Let there be lights.”
were not created on the Fourth Day, but on...
