Sukkot: The Festival of Joy
Sukkot is a joyous festival beginning five days after Yom Kippur. It is also known as the Festival of Booths and the Feast of Tabernacles after the temporary booths or huts (Sukkot in Hebrew) in which Jews are supposed to dwell during this week-long celebration. The Sukkah Hut Why? According to Rabbinic tradition, Sukkot represents […]
Rosh Hashanah: Why Apples and Honey?
Rosh HaShanah, like most Jewish holidays, has several unique food customs associated with it. One of the most popular and well-known has to do with dipping apples into honey, stemming from the age-old Jewish tradition of eating sweet foods to express our hope for a sweet new year. But why specifically apples and honey? Here […]
Judaism and the Environment: An Introduction
Thousands of years ago, before ecology became a worldwide human concern, Judaism dealt in a detailed and sophisticated manner with environmental issues. In Genesis (1:28), G-d commands man to “fill the world and subdue it.” It seems the Torah permits us to use the world as we see fit. However, a few verses later (Genesis […]
Rosh Chodesh: A Monthly Renewal
The idea of sanctifying time is one of the foundations of Jewish faith and practice. In fact, the first words of the Torah are “In the beginning,” the beginning of time itself, which ever since has provided the backdrop for the interaction of the physical world and the spiritual which preceded it. It shouldn’t come […]
