Many a rabbi has pointed out the midrashic wordplay that indicates that Yom Kippur is, in fact “a day like Purim” (Yom haKi-Purim). Others have noted that some sources indicate Purim to be the holiest Jewish Calendar day of them all. At the heart of Purim does, in fact, lie the holiest deed that any […]
Most Jews in the U.S. today would associate Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish New Year for the Trees, with something like the American Earth Day. Even Jews from outside of the U.S. are likely to associate it with ecological awareness and environmental protection (possibly due to global attention rightly paid to these issues). In antiquity, far before humanity […]
This year, the story of Hannukah has taken on a new dimension for me. As a company founder, I see the story of Hannukah as one of persistence and triumph in the face of adversity. But also, a flawed one, as is the case with many startups and businesses. The Maccabees are admirable in the […]
In Jewish Day School I was often fed an idea of Jewish history in which it was every nation beating up the Children of Israel. Every era of history was channeled into this idea, from Pharaoh to Titus to the Iberian Expulsion to Hitler, not to mention a host of other contemporary figures. As college […]
“You know what’s interesting about Yom Kippur?” my father told me on a Connecticut road, “It’s the only holiday that hasn’t been successfully commercialized.” Ever since I began to fully grasp the concept of Yom Kippur at age ten, the holiday remains one apart from all others, Jewish and otherwise. For one day a year, […]
