Displaying 1 - 8 of 8
Galilee Diary: Galilee encounters
Three encounters from a day with 50 students from HUC, spending their first year in Israel before beginning their studies at the stateside campuses.
Hineini: A Poem for the Omer
I will walk the requisite path--
The one that begins here,
Right here
In front of me.
I have stared at its armored edge
for a small taste of
Forever.
Really--
It looks no different
From any other spot;
There is no demarcation,
No arrows or exes
It’s Hard to be a Jew at Christmas, But Even Harder on Tu BiSh’vat
It is a truth universally acknowledged that it can be difficult to be Jewish at Christmas time. It has seeped into North American cultural consciousness so thoroughly that South Park even wrote a song about it, complete with trademark expletives.
What is the Omer and why do we count it?
The Omer was an ancient Hebrew measure of grain. Biblical law (Leviticus 23:9-11) forbade any use of the new barley crop until an omer was brought as an offering to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Tu BiShvat: Customs and Rituals
The Jewish mystics of the 17th century, the Kabbalists, created a special ritual—modeled after the Passover seder—to celebrate God's presence in nature. Today in modern Israel, Tu BiShvat has become a national holiday, a tree planting festivaTu BiShvat is not mentioned in the Torah. Scholars believe the holiday was originally an agricultural festival, corresponding to the beginning of spring in Israel. But a critical historical event helped Tu BiShvat evolve from a simple celebration of spring to a commemoration of our connection to the land of Israel. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. and the exile that followed, many of the exiled Jews felt a need to bind themselves symbolically to their former homeland. Tu BiShvat served in part to fill that spiritual need. Jews used this time each year to eat a variety of fruits and nuts that could be obtained from Israel. The practice, a sort of physical association with the land, continued for many centuries.l for both Israelis and Jews throughout the world
Tu BiShvat: History
Although the celebration of Tu BiShvat has a long and varied history, the theme most commonly ascribed to the holiday today is the environment.
Counting of the Omer: Blessings for Each Day
The period between Passover and Shavuot is called the “Counting of the Omer” ( Sefirat Ha'omer).