Yom Kippur All Year Long
In the first part of this week's parashah, Acharei Mot/K'doshim, the Torah's fullest description of Yom Kippur appears. (Leviticus 16:2-34) But Holy Days, holidays, and festivals develop and evolve as human life changes.
Video: How to Blow the Shofar
Alphabetical Food Drive
Kever Avot: Visiting the Graves of Our Loved Ones
Torah Lessons My Father Taught Me
I was a student in my father's ninth grade religious-school class. What I remember the most all these years later is learning Torah from him and, most important, the practical ethical lessons we can apply to our lives from our most sacred text.
You Shall Afflict Yourselves
Focal Point
- And this shall be to you a law for all time: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall practice self-denial [teannu et nafshoteichem ]; and you shall do no manner of work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you.
Yom Kippur for Tweens
Want to know more about the Torah? Find out about the biblical background of Yom Kippur with Torah for Tweens!
What Does It Mean To Be Holy?
In the democratic society of Israel, we with struggle the concept of what it means to be am chofshi b'artzeinu, "a free people in our land." We ask, "What does the responsibility of freedom require from us?" Every year, it seems the answers are less obvious and the search to find them be
Stretching to Make Sense (And Not Fully Succeeding)
This week's Torah portion, Acharei Mot, "After the death" [of two of Aaron's sons], continues the focus on ritual purity that began earlier in Leviticus, and begins the section of the book known as the Holiness Code.
Yom Kippur: It Is Not in the Heavens
Central to the "Torah"—my father, Jacob Milgrom, z"l, taught me and countless others—was the revolution of priestly theology. In the priestly view, sin was not a separate demonic force; rather, sin was/is of human volition—human beings bring sin and goodness both into the world.