Minors: children under 13 and girls under 12 are completely exempt from this fast. Pregnant women are exempt from this fast. Nursing women, in many Sephardic...

אֶת-הַכֶּ֥בֶשׂ אֶחָ֖ד תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה בַבֹּ֑קֶר וְאֵת֙ הַכֶּ֣בֶשׂ הַשֵּׁנִ֔י תַּעֲשֶׂ֖ה בֵּ֥ין הָֽעַרְבָּֽיִם The rabbis mentioned 5 tragic events that happened on the 17th of Tamuz.  One...

IN THE DESERT The Jewish people were in the desert, just a few days from reaching the Promised Land. God instructed Moses to send twelve...

One of the most critical lessons conveyed by the Parasha of the MERAGELIM (spies or explorers) is to learn to identify and communicate the...

At some unspecified point in this week’s Parasha, Chuqat, the biblical text makes a leap in time, transporting us from the second year after...

THE FIRST ISRAELI ARMY Three thousand five hundred years ago, the first Israeli army was formed in the Sinai desert. It consisted of 603,550 soldiers...

Korach, the cousin of Moshe Rabbenu, leads a rebellion against Moshe and Aaron alongside members of the tribe of Reuben: Dathan, Abiram, and On,...

40 years have passed between last week's Parasha and this week's Parasha, Chuqat. We are right now at the last moments of the journey...

וַיְשַׁלַּח ה’ בָּעָם אֵת הַנְּחָשִׁים הַשְּׂרָפִים BIBLICAL SOPHISTICATION Hebrew is an extremely sophisticated language. Almost all nouns have a 3-letter "root", which with the...

ציונות = חזרתם של העם היהודי לארץ ישראל להקים שם מדינה יהודית. בעוד שהמונח "ציונות" הוטבע על ידי נתן בירנבאום בשנת 1890, הרב יהודה ביבאס...