Deluxe Buckwheat Almond Cake with Raspberry Filling
This dessert pairs a delicate nut flavor with raspberry preserve filling.
Israeli Fish Kebabs with Yellow Tahini Yogurt Sauce
Packed with fresh herbs, these fish kebabs are bursting with flavor.
On Simchat Torah, We Turn and Turn Again
I like the symmetry of the concept of return.
I like the idea that, no matter how linear we think we are, or time is, or God is, we tend to find a way back. Even God recognizes this view: Why else create t’shuvah (repentance) before ever creating the heavens and the earth?
Waving the Flag of Egalitarianism in Israel on Simchat Torah
One of the great paradoxes of being an American Reform Jew who chose to make aliyah (move to Israel) is that the whole concept of majority and minority is turned on its head. One the one hand, as a Jew, I am culturally and ethnically now part of the majority.
In Jerusalem, Tu BiShvat Offers a Welcome Respite from Winter
Coming a month and a half before the spring equinox and two months before Passover, Tu BiShvat provides a glimmer of springtime at a time when winter can often be at its cruelest.
Do we literally read the entire Torah in one year, starting on Simchat Torah?
We read the entire Torah over a year, beginning the cycle on the same week as Simchat Torah. The Torah is divided into 54 portions – or parashiyot – and, generally, one portion is read each week on Shabbat.
A Prayer for Simchat Torah
“Rejoicing in the Torah” doesn’t require us to find joy in every verse. It doesn’t mean that we concur with every choice made by the people in it.
We All Are Worthy of Blessing
On Simchat Torah, as we read the final portion of the Torah and immediately beginning again, what can the blessings to the Israelites teach us about our world today?
Celebrating Layers of Meaning on Simchat Torah
On Simchat Torah, I watch as the Torah scroll is carefully unfurled onto a series of long connected tables – the text so much more than designs scattered on parchment.
It’s a New Year, So Ask Lots of Questions
Questions are the lifeblood of learning and there is no better time to ask them then now.