Judaism

Torah

Blessing the People With Love and Joy

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Does Birthright Stifle Teen Travel?

Shavuot

Synagogues Celebrate New Arrivals

Torah

It's About Words, the Power to Heal or Harm

EMOR, Leviticus 21:1-24:23

Blasphemy, blame and blessing: Can we break the cycle of violence? What is blasphemy? Most widely understood as disrespect for God or that which is considered sacred, blasphemy is in the international news. In January, a new law went into effect in Ireland stating that any abusive utterance concerning sacred matters of any religion is punishable by a fine of...

Torah

Laws of What and Who Are Pure and Impure

TAZRIA-METZORA, Leviticus 12:1-15:33

By:

Rabbi Danielle Stillman

When we read the double portion of Tazria-Metzora, it is easy to fixate on all the gory details of eruptive affections, white swellings and greenish streaks that the portions describe so meticulously. Our immediate reaction is "yuck." These yucky things throw us into a state of tamei, which is translated as "unclean" or "impure." We tend to think of purity...

Torah

There's Nothing So Pure as a Broken Heart

SHEMINI, Leviticus 9:1-11:47

By:

Rabbi Howard A. Addison

At first glance, one would be hard pressed to uncover any thematic unity between the beginning and the end of Parshat Shemini. The initial narrative describes a tragedy. On the day Aaron and his sons were to be sanctified as the priests of Israel, Aaron's two elder sons, Nadav and Avihu, offered an unauthorized sacrifice and died approaching the altar...

Yom Hashoah

Yom Hashoah Marks Resistance, Survival

By:

Aaron Passman

Samuel Kassow, a professor of history at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., speaks a bit of everything. He's fluent in Yiddish, gets by in Polish, knows his way around Russian and Hebrew, and has a good reading command of German and French. But he won't need a translator when he speaks in Philadelphia this weekend; his message will be very...

Yom Hashoah

Yom Hashoah: A True Tale of Triumph, Divided Three Ways

By:

Melissa Jacobs, Jewish Exponent Feature

Yiddish flies around the kitchen as the three older women grapple with the temperature in the Northeast Philadelphia house in which they've gathered. These white-haired widows in their 80s have been friends for more than 30 years. Paula Spigler, Serena Zelmanovitch and Hannah Andrusier talk on the phone daily, attend Ohev Shalom synagogue in Richboro on Saturdays and squabble like...