Judaism

Torah

Blessing the People With Love and Joy

Local

Does Birthright Stifle Teen Travel?

Shavuot

Synagogues Celebrate New Arrivals

Torah

Fasting: A Link to True Source of Sustenance

By:

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell

YOM KIPPUR Is this the fast I look for? On Yom Kippur, we Jews imagine our deaths. We spend the day in prayer and contemplation. Some of us wear a kittel, the simple garment in which we will be buried. We turn away from daily pleasures of comfort, including bathing, wearing cosmetics and leather, and any intimate contact. Many of...

Sukkot

Sukkot: From House to Hut

By:

Ethel Hofman, JE Feature

THE JEWISH KITCHEN Sukkot, like Thanksgiving, celebrates a bountiful harvest. The joyful biblical holiday comes right on the heels of Yom Kippur when Jews all over the world will begin to build their sukkahs. These structures are symbolic of the humble booths used by farmers for shelter and shade while harvesting crops. Another explanation is that they symbolize the portable...

Headlines

Tzedakah: Just How Much Is Enough?

By:

David Teutsch

In the powerful Unetaneh Tokef prayer, the High Holiday liturgy proclaims, "Repentance, prayer and tzedakah make the decree easier to bear." It seems clear that acknowledging error and connecting to God would bring spiritual strength that eases difficult situations. But why tzedakah? Perhaps it represents a commitment to making the world a better place. But how much tzedakah should we...

Yom Kippur

A Holiday Without Fasting: How to Help Kids Atone, Too

By:

Sarah Chandler, MyJewishLearning

NEW YORK -- For most adults, the central experience of Yom Kippur is fasting. By abstaining from food and drink, we exercise control over our bodies and do not give in to our most basic impulses. This makes it pretty easy to feel the "affliction" that the Torah mandates. But parents sometimes find it difficult to include children in the...

Film & Television

What Would Seinfeld Watch?

By:

Michael Elkin

Did The Jewish Channel heed the shofar as a clarion call to start the new year with a blast in Philadelphia? So it is written -- it's right there, in the contract with Comcast -- that the national cable network known as TJC has just been wired locally for sound and sights, serving the region's Comcast digital subscribers. Must-see Jewish...