For the Jewish world, the 20th century was incredibly dynamic and Jewish life changed fundamentally. Out of everything that happened, two events stand out in particular: the Holocaust and the founding...
Pesach is now behind us, and looking back on all the chaos of the climax of the Jewish calendar, something constantly crosses my mind. Why Pesach? Why is Passover the most decorated holiday of the year?
It...
Dayenu – we say it at the end of the seder's Magid section and it means, "It would have been enough." But if you read the actual words of Dayenu, it is clear that it wouldn’t have been enough. In fact,...
I could never really get my hands around the reason we call this holiday “Purim,” or “lots.” Isn’t it the story about a sinister villain, a devoted supporter, a beautiful heroine, and a malleable...
Rabbi Abraham Lieberman, Shalhevet rabbi and teacher, says terminating a pregnancy violates Judaism’s prohibition against murder, lo tirzach.
“The fetus is a life – if you abort it, you kill...
Coming shortly after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot is a time that, if one is not careful, could seem simply like a fall break. Because Bnei Yisrael built huts in the desert after they were freed...
Aside from a potential attempt to appease our hunger from the fast, a story about a large fish may seem somewhat out of place to read on Yom Kippur. So why do we read Sefer Yonah on Yom Kippur, a day...
Shalhevet’s Judaic Studies Department has created a mandatory halacha class for the ninth grade this year to introduce freshmen to Jewish law, instead of teaching it only as it comes up in other Judaic...
Shavuot is known as the fun holiday where we stay up all night learning Torah, eating endless amounts of cheesecake and as many dairy products as we can think of. On that day thousands of years back we...
On Feb. 1, Dean of Students Rabbi Ari Schwarzberg posted eight mysterious words to the Just Community Schoology board:
The First BOMB is about to be dropped....
As alarming as it sounded out of...
Lag BaOmer is a joyous holiday that takes place on the 33rd day of the omer – the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot, when we mourn the deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva who were punished...
