Jewish Word | Pikuach Nefesh
In Chaim Potok’s 1969 novel The Promise, sequel to the better-known The Chosen, there’s a scene that piercingly illustrates the Jewish legal emphasis on saving a life.
12
Jan
05
Jan
Can I Get An Amen?
In Numbers 5:22, a priest orders a woman who is accused of adultery to drink water that is mixed with dust from a tabernacle floor. The...
30
Nov
Jewish Word | The Mourner’s Kaddish
The Mourner’s Kaddish, a prayer with ancient roots that a person says upon the loss of a parent, sibling or spouse, is one of the most instantly recognizable Jewish prayers of all time.
30
Sep
Jewish Word | Jews of Color
While “Jews of color” is not an exclusively American term, it was born of this country’s complex interrelationship between race and identity.
16
Jun
Jewish Word | When the Past Is Present and the Present Is Past
We Jews are obsessed with history. From ancient to modern times, from the Flood to the Exodus to the destruction of the Temples and the exiles, from the Middle Ages to the Inquisition and the pogroms to the Holocaust to the establishment of the State of Israel, we recall and retell our history.
09
Mar
Jewish Word | Challah
The word “challah” made its first appearance more than 2,500 years ago.
13
Jan
Jewish Word | Emet
Suppose you’ve made a golem, a man-shaped figure of clay, and you want to bring it to life.
25
Nov
Jewish Word | Bark Mitzvah
The first known bark mitzvah took place in 1958 in Beverly Hills, California.
23
Sep
Jewish Word | The Wandering Jew
Every autumn, Jews all over the world read the Torah portion Lech Lecha, in which God instructs the future patriarch Abraham to abandon his native land for a promised one
03
Jun
Jewish Word | Is Everyone a White Supremacist?
The term, historically used to describe an adherent to the ideology of white supremacy, is now thrown around so often that it no longer is always clear what it means. That’s a dangerous trend.