Jewish Holidays and Culture

Hanukah, Extremism and Light

December 27, 2011

Hanukah is probably the most confounding holiday on the Jewish calendar. If we move beyond the toys and the gelt of 20th century Christmas catch-up, the story itself has been interpreted in so many ways that it’s difficult to get a lock on the pshat (the simplest understanding). For what is Hanukah? Is it the [...]

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Dueling Eicha’s…with Wheels

August 9, 2011

The holiday of Tisha B’av has befallen us (yes, pun intended) and Jews all over the world are spending the day reflecting, fasting or otherwise using the holiday’s restrictions to avoid shaving and bathing for a day. On the evening of Tisha B’av, it is traditional to hear the book of Lamentations (Eicha) being read [...]

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L’ag b’Omer is Saturday Night. Or Maybe Not

May 18, 2011

The Jewish “bonfire” holiday of L’ag b’Omer is this Saturday night. Or maybe not. L’ag b’Omer commemorates the day some 2,000 years ago that a plague killing 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva ended. “L’ag” stands for lamed-gimel – in Hebrew the number 33. The Omer refers to a period of 49 days between the holidays [...]

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Aviv’s Bar Mitzvah

March 25, 2011

It’s been an incredible few weeks around Aviv’s bar mitzvah. Family came in from overseas, we had a slew of great activities (from a lovely walk in the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens to a treasure hunt in the Old City – more on that in an upcoming post) all leading up to the big day. The [...]

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Secular Rabbis to the Rescue?

February 10, 2011

The Jerusalem Post reported this weekend about a rabbinic ordination ceremony of a very different kind. I was there at the event too, which took place in December. What made it all so unique was that the new rabbis were all entirely secular. And they don’t believe in God, at least not in the traditional [...]

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Religious Mustard and Other Hebrew Acronyms

January 26, 2011

In the U.S. and most western countries, Jews tend to identify their religious affiliation through one of the major Jewish movements, be it Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal, and even Secular Humanistic Judaism. Not so in Israel, where one’s religious standing is far more nuanced. In a country that loves army-influenced acronyms, a whole [...]

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War Over the Airwaves in Eilat

December 16, 2010

In 1947, the U.N. partition plan designated the sleepy port of Eilat as the southernmost tip of the new Jewish state. It wasn’t until the final days of the War of Independence, however, when Israel took control of the town in an operation that surprised the small platoon of Jordanian troops stationed in mud huts [...]

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To Brit or Not to Brit

November 25, 2010

We recently attended a brit mila in Jerusalem. Prior to the ceremony, the father of the newborn expressed some misgivings about the whole concept of circumcision. Of course my friend was going to go through with the ceremony – this is Israel, after all, where for a Jewish boy not to be circumcised is rare [...]

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Sleeping with the Enemy. It’s OK…Really

October 7, 2010

Sometimes, Jewish law can be taken to the most unlikely extremes. Witness the report in Ynet this week that it’s OK for an Israeli woman to seduce an enemy agent for the sake of national security. Indeed, it’s an important mitzvah. The ruling was made by Rabbi Ari Shvat in a publication from the Zomet [...]

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Overeating in the Land of the Buffet

September 22, 2010

What is it about Jews and buffets? We see one and we go hog-wild, pardon the expression. And buffets are big business in Israel. Our most recent encounter with the ubiquitous Israeli buffet was during a Shabbaton earlier this year with our synagogue at the Alon Tavor Field School. Some explanations first. Field schools are [...]

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