SELIHOT: Training for a Marathon day
From the second day of the month of Elul (today!) until Yom Kippur, the Sephardic custom is to recite the Selihot prayer.Selihot is a...
RELIGIOUS INTEGRITY: The Honest YES
In the Tora it is written: (vayiqra 19:36) "Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin ; I am the LORD your God,...
Rabbi Ya’akob Hajez (1620-1674)
Rabbi Ya'aqob Hajez (aka Hagiz) was born in Fez, Morocco in 1620. In 1657 and after living in Livorno (Italy) for a few years, Rabbi Hajez settled...
Maimonides on how did Abraham Abinu find God?
Maimonides (MT, 'abodat kokhabim, 1:3) explains that since his early childhood and while everyone else was adoring human-looking idols, Abraham began to think out of...
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT: Carving images.
As we have already explained (see here) the Ten Commandments (in Hebrew: the Ten Declarations or enunciations) include more than "ten" commandments or precepts. According...
Rabbi Moshe Almosnino (Greece 1515-1580)
Rabbi Almosnino was born in Salonica in 1515. Rabbi Almosnino belonged to a prominent Sephardic family, which fled Aragon after two of his ancestors...
Maimonides on ‘aboda zara (1:2): From God to idol worshipping
Of its 613 Mitzvot (commandments) the Tora dedicates 51 to the prohibition of idol worshiping or 'aboda zara. In His book Mishne Tora Maimonides devotes...
15 of Ab: From mourning to celebration
In Masekhet Ta'anit Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said that "There were no better days for the People of Israel than the Fifteenth of Ab and...
zekher lahurban: Remembering His house in our homes
As we have explained yesterday, the Rabbis enacted a number of ordinances in order to remind us of the destruction of the Holy Temple....
Eve of the 9 of Ab: preparing ourselves for 24 hours...
Tish'a beAb, our national day of mourning, begins tonight Monday July 15th. In NYC the fast begins at 8:16pm and ends at 8:45pm (some communities...
