Judaism

Torah

Blessing the People With Love and Joy

Local

Does Birthright Stifle Teen Travel?

Shavuot

Synagogues Celebrate New Arrivals

Rosh Hashanah

A Rosh Rush

By:

Eric Berger

When students come to Hillel of Greater Philadelphia seeking advice on how to handle a conflict between class and observing the High Holidays, Rabbi Howard Alpert said he advises them on how to discuss the issue with their professors, but he himself avoids intervening. His reasoning is that when a student has to explain such an absence to faculty it...

Torah

This Is the Time to Turn Back to God

KI TAVO, Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8

By:

Rabbi Adam Zeff

Some might say it is a coincidence of our calendar that this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, is read just before the High Holidays. Yet one of the axioms of studying Torah is that there are no coincidences. Even the most minute laws contained in this week’s reading have important things to teach us about teshuvah — the “turning” of...

Israel

Haredi Take Spirit to the Battlefield

By:

Ben Sales, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

For decades, haredi men in Israel have received exemptions from otherwise mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces to study in yeshivas instead. But one army division has accommodated several thousand haredi draftees who require stringent kosher certification and eschew any contact with women.

Torah

Portion Challenges Us to Rethink What Is Just

KI TETZE, Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19

By:

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell

On Sunday, Aug. 19, Jews around the world welcomed the month of Elul with a single blast of the shofar. At the kotel, women who gathered in honor of Rosh Hodesh Elul were arrested for wearing modest ritual garb. They were removed from this holy place before they could hear the shofar. Their arrest signified the state's denial of their...

Torah

Seek Refuge in Most Glorious of Spots: Torah

SHOFTIM, Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9

By:

Rabbi Joshua Runyan

A refuge comes in many forms. For many children, husbands and wives, home is a refuge, a shelter from the pressures of the world and the criticisms of others. In many states, national wildlife refuges provide shelter for birds and other animals -- plots of land and sea protected from the encroachments of hunters and heavy industry. In this week's...