Rosh Chodesh: Marking Time with Friends
The actual Rosh Chodesh celebration is hardly mandated, so there's a lot of room for creativity in designing a ritual celebration. Here are a few ideas for starting your own.
Galilee Diary: Why is This Night Different?
"Tu" (the Hebrew abbreviation of 15th) in the month of Shvat was set (Hillel's opinion generally overrules Shammai's) as the beginning of the tithable year for tree fruit: Calculating the tithe on fruit starts again for fruit that sets after that date.
Beyond the Purim-spiel: Creating Purim Memories at Home with your Mishpacha
In my household, Purim has been the holiday in which I have taken something “traditional” and turned in on its head!
I Am How I Eat
How often is family dinner a spiritual time? In our household, not nearly as often as I would wish.
An Uncommon Debbie Story
The first I ever heard of Debbie Friedman was to see her name printed on the inside covers of my synagogue’s prayer books, naming her the author of the modern
I Can’t Pray For Healing
This morning I received a text message from my Aunt Linda saying, “I am doing well… love being home after three weeks in the hospital and rehab.” I almost replied, as if on rabbi auto-pilot, “I’ve been praying for your recovery” but instead wrote, “I’ve been thinking of you a lot!
The List: A novel by Martin Fletcher
“Why don’t they want us? Why is there so much hospitality towards us”; asks Edith, a refugee from the Holocaust living in England.
Love at First Sight: My First Shehecheyanu
This post is to entice you to read this feature article in the New York Times Magazine of February 5, 2012. Atlanta author and journalist Melissa Fay Greene spent almost a year i