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The Jewish Year

  • Yom Kippur and Arthur Schopenhauer

    In The Jewish Year

    All religions and philosophies are, without a doubt, confronted with the question of how to relate to "existence." Should one oppose "existence" and ideally opt for "non-existence," or should one view "being" as good and "non-being" as the opposite?

  • Yom Yerushalayim

    In Israel & Zionism and The Jewish Year

    I stand at the Kotel, the Wailing Wall.
    I see the Wall with her frozen tears
    And her passing clouds with many sighs.
    I read secret books and hundreds of thousands of names.
    Names from Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Poland, Spain, Hungary, America and South Africa.
    Names from Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau.

  • Pessah and The Challenge of Freedom

    In The Jewish Year and Passover

    Judaism is the art of making a problem out of every solution. It correctly believes that what is taken for granted is boring; it does not get our attention and therefore has no significance. Only when we see something as a challenge and give it thought do we come alive. A sense of duty reflects awareness that the trivial is critical.  There is no growth except in the fulfillment of one’s duty. 

  • Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

    Starting is more important than completing

    In The Jewish Year and Yom Kippur

    Moshe Rabbenu teaches us that real religious life is not defined by where one finds oneself spiritually, but rather by how hard one tries to get there! 

  • Tisha B’Av/The Ninth of Av

    In The Jewish Year

    The Sacrifices, a Foretaste and the Eye of a Needle: One of the most puzzling dimensions of Jewish Tradition is the institution of the sacrificial rites in the Temple. Although there are many other purposes to the Temple, it cannot be denied that sacrifices stand at the very heart of the Temple service. Profound differences of opinion exist between the early and later commentators regarding how to understand the institution of sacrifices. (1)

  • Shavuoth

    In The Jewish Year

    "Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai and the "Portable Fatherland

    In a fascinating narrative in the Talmudic tractate of Gitin (56b), we are told that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai, outstanding leader of the Jewish people during the days in which the Roman Empire invaded the land of Israel, was confronted with a question of life and death.  Vespasian, who would soon become the new Roman emperor, had brought the Jews to total exhaustion after years of intensive battles. Yerushalayim had fallen, people were dying, there was nothing to eat and complete despair had overtaken the Jewish community. At any moment the (second) Temple would be destroyed.  There was no way the Jews could rid themselves   of the enemy, and only one question remained. Do they surrender and save whatever could be salvaged, or do they fight until the death without any hope or future?

  • Kal Nidre – We are all Marranos

    In The Jewish Year

    Kal Nidrei is by far the most celebrated prayer in all Jewish Communities around the world and the most attended prayer throughout the Jewish year. Tens of thousands of Jews who would otherwise never attend a synagogue service will make sure they are "there" for Kal Nidrei. Not a few will leave shortly after the prayer is said and only re-appear a year later for the same occasion. The tune of this prayer has become the most famous Jewish melody ever, by far outdoing Israel's national anthem, Hatikva. Its tune is so magnificent that the famous non-Jewish author, Tolstoy, called it "a melody which echoes the story of the great martyrdom of a grief-stricken nation." Not even Beethoven's C Sharp Minor Quartet opus 131(six movement) is able to convey its grandeur, although it comes close.

  • Thoughts to Ponder on Shavuoth

    In The Jewish Year

    The giving of the Torah is a declaration of war. It is a protest not only against the world of Avoda Zarah, idol worship and immorality but also a call to be "unreasonable" since the "reasonable" man adapts himself to the world while the "unreasonable" man adapts the world to himself and what we need to realize is that all progress depends on the "unreasonable" man.

  • Shavuot, Revelation and Learning

    In The Jewish Year

    In the Pirke Avoth (Ethics of the Fathers 3:10), we find a rather exorbitant statement by one of the Sages: "Rabbi Dostai ben Yanai said in the name of Rabbi Meir:" Whoever forgets even one thing of his Torah learning, Scripture regards him as though he is guilty to pay with his life, for it is said: "Be careful and guard your life greatly, lest you forget the things you saw (at the time of the revelation at Sinai) with your own eyes, and lest they be removed from your heart your entire lifetime, and you shall inform your children and grandchildren of them, the day you stood before God, your God at Chorev…. " (Devarim 4,9-10)

  • Tisha be Av and the Parah Aduma in us

    In The Jewish Year

    (This essay was written by Moshe Dan).
    In order to understand the Parah Adumah we have to go back (at least) to the story of what happened to the scouts (meraglim). Their negative report so confused and demoralized the people that they refused to follow Moshe into Eretz Yisrael - sealing their fate (to die in the desert) and changing the course of history (settling the Land.without a struggle, bringing the messianic age). They failed to appreciate themselves and to believe in their relationship with God. It was catastrophic; the first Tisha B'Av.

     

  • Simchat Torah, The Endless Beginning

    In The Jewish Year

    Jewish learning is a tradition of constant beginnings without any end in sight. At the end of Succoth, Jews over the world will be completing the reading of Torah in their synagogues and immediately starting all over again. This is a most remarkable tradition which takes place on Simchat Torah. Instead of being satisfied with this last reading, they conclude that they really did not read it well enough and that there is a need to read it once more. Taking into account that this kind of re-reading has already gone on for thousands of years and that there are no indications it will end in the future, one wonders when Jews will ever complete their reading of the Torah

  • Rosh Hashana Teshuva

    A Matter of Seduction

    In The Jewish Year and Rosh Hashanah

    What does the haftarah of Shabbat Shuvah mean when it suggests that we should use words of seduction at the time of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to aid in the process of teshuva? Why should we utter words that are not entirely truthful?