The Fast of Esther (13th of Adar)
Today is the Fast of Esther, named for the brave queen who risked her life to save her people, asking them only to fast for her sake.
Today is the Fast of Esther, named for the brave queen who risked her life to save her people, asking them only to fast for her sake.
Items that appear harmless may cause serious harm. Read carefully and stay safe.
Interesting ideas about the Megillah and the Purim holiday.
The answer is particularly apt for our times.
Do you see what the parasha we read yesterday, the Megillah and our currect judicial reform controversy have in common? Actually, you can't.
We did not return to our Land in order to dispossess Arabs but if they rise against us, we will fight them and win, all within the law.
For his students, Rabbi Chaim Druckman was a central component of every holiday, especially Purim.
Why would our Sages instruct us to get drunk, when the Torah and Prophets clearly object to the associated lack of control?
Start the party: Learning from an uncouth dictator how to celebrate life.
Israel's first Chief Rabbi: It was never easy to be a Jew.
Amalek attacked us. Since Haman is an Amalekite, reading this passage before Purim is a reminder of our perpetual war against evil.
We, too, should always remember who and what we are representing as we try to bring G-d's Presence closer to us.
What's the (incredible) purpose of this Mizbe'ach? And how does this week's parsha connect with Purim?
“Diversity—the art of thinking independently together.”–– Malcolm Forbes.
News and shiurim for Shabbat.
Young religious Zionist rabbis: How the Beit Hamikdash enlightens the world acting as a spiritual lighthouse in the Holy Land.
If all the Jews 200 years ago were non-observant, there is little reason to believe that there would be a single Jew alive today.
Thoughts on Parshat Tetzaveh.
Many think of birth as the beginning of our story, but it is not. It is only the beginning of a new chapter—our chapter on earth.
Read the Netivot Shalom, Rav Zalman Sorotzkin, Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl,The Ra’ma, Maharal and more on the power of priestly clothes to atone..
What really happened at Mount Sinai? After all, say skeptics, God doesn't speak to us.
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life.
Congregants don’t always realise that the synagogue, especially in the Diaspora, has to be the centre of people’s Jewishness.
Debate over the name and timeline from 1933 to 1945.
It seems like a contradiction in timing, but it is really a model for living.
The Ben-Eliyahu Farm and the promise of new plantings. PM Netanyahu, we pray that you live up to the Rebbe's blessing to you.
Betzalel was certainly sharp to be able to reconstruct the original divine message. Why did Moses change the order that God had told him?
Leaders have to bring people together, especially those with disparate interests and backgrounds, to work towards a common purpose.
If a cherub is okay, why not a golden calf? What is the difference?
Why did the Mishkan have multiple covers? Why was the outer one made of rough - and perhaps ugly - material?
Why Chassidus Is critical to trauma healing.
In this week’s parsha of Terumah the Torah presents a challenge to human behavior.
Selected leading rabbis share their thoughts on this week's Torah Reading.
Young religiosu Zionist rabbis in Israel study the parasha with an eye on the Holy Land: Is the Land of israel the exact world center?
What is so significant about the Tabernacle that the Torah dedicates to discussing it more space than the world covenant?
it is appropriate that the Torah-readings for Adar, when we increase in joy, prepare us for building the Mishkan. Numerology attests to it.
Rabbi Hirsch shows that Torah commandments are in force despite the destruction of the ancient Jewish commonwealth.
A practice of the hassidim of Medieval France - what it is and what it signifies.
Chodesh tov! The Persians threaten once again to annihilate the Jews in one day, this time with a bomb, but they should read the Megillah.
There is a contrast between the type of charitable giving in Parashat Terumah and Parashat Ki Tisa.
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life.
What do Chazal exactly want from us this month when they tell us to be happy? And why?
Arabs were for the most part apathetic to the Allied cause, while God saved the Sephardic Jews.
Generalizing about Jewish behavior, the writer criticizes Jewish speech and our generalizing about Arabs. But he has a point. Op-ed .
The judicial system protected the rights of the secular and anti-Zionists but was tyrannical towards traditional and nationalist citizens.
Lessons in Torah readings related to Eretz Yisrael.
Israel's First Chief Rabbi: In general, does the Torah look favorably on the institution of slavery?
How the Sages can derive laws from minutae in the Torah that others don't see..
Why the discrepancy between the Oral and Written traditions of Judaism?
A collection of Torah lectures on the parasha, and a picture conundrum.
Selected commentators explain the reasons ordinances between man and his fellow man had to be given at Sinai.
What is really going on in the dispute over judicial reform in Israel? What are they protesting?
We find 3 mitzvahs with no clear connection between them: don't make offerings to idols, don't mistreat a Ger, and don't mistreat widows.
“The cruel reality of leadership is that when things go wrong, you take a disproportionate amount of the blame.”
Is this a random selection of mitzvot, or is there a connecting theme?
Governments that prach equality enslave others without a second thought.
The Chafetz Chaim once said that world disasters are messages from G-d to do teshuva.
Why did G-d make a messy world only to dedicate an entire Torah portion to tell us how to clean up the mess?
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life.
One of the biggest lies about the Jewish People during the Holocaust is that they went "like sheep to the slaughter." This is not true.