Tues. 4/23/24 congregational 2nd night seder. Passover is an 8-day festival celebrating the Israelites' Exodus from Egyptian slavery. The most important event in Jewish history is marked by eating matzah and bitter herbs, drinking wine, telling the Passover story and not eating leaven (chametz).
Israelis observe Yom Ha'atzmaut to commemorate the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which was proclaimed by future Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion on behalf of the Yishuv on 14 May 1948.The mood outside of Ben-Gurion's residence just prior to the announcement was joyous: The Jews of Palestine ... were dancing because they were about to realize what was one of the most…
Lag BaOmer, also Lag B'Omer or Lag LaOmer, is a Jewish religious holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar. The holiday celebrates a break in a plague that is said to have occurred during the days of Rabbi…
The festival of Shavuot (or Shavuos, in Ashkenazi usage; Shabhuʿoth in Classical and Mizrahi Hebrew Hebrew: שבועות, lit. “Weeks”) is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (late May or early June). Shavuot commemorates the anniversary of the day G-d gave the Torah to the entire Israelite nation…
Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, is recognized as the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is a day of mourning for tragedies across Jewish history, most particularly the destruction and loss of the first and second Temple and Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago.
Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה), (literally “head of the year”), is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim (“Days of Awe”), celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. It is described…
The goal of Tashlich is to cast both our sins and the Heavenly prosecutor (a.k.a. the Satan) into the Heavenly sea. And when we shake our clothes after the Tashlich prayer, this is a tangible act to achieve the spiritual goal of shaking sins from our soul. Needless to say, the physical motions near the water and fish…
From The Rabbi’s Study…Shabbat v’Yom Kippur October 9,10, 2024/9,10 Tishrei 5785 This Sabbath is Yom Kippur, even though Yom Kippur is our “Holiest” of the Jewish holidays, it is Shabbat that is the Holiest day because it comes every WEEK! Light your Yahrzeit candles first, then your Sabbath candles…end the Blessing with "Lehadlik ner shel…
Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, when we fast, pray, seek forgiveness from G-d and our fellows, and come closer to G-d. It is the peak of the High Holidays. A time of introspection, abstinence, prayer and penitence. The story of Abraham is read, the ram’s horn…
We are planning a lunch on Sunday, Oct. 20th. Sukkot for Hebrew Year 5785 begins at sundown on Wednesday, October 16, 2024 and ends at nightfall on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. Sukkot (Hebrew: סוכות or סֻכּוֹת, sukkōt, or sukkos, Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles) is a holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of…
Simchat Torah is about more than beginning to read the Torah all over again. It’s about the need to reexamine what we think we know, over and over again. We celebrate another year of reading and studying Torah: the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—which, according to Jewish tradition, were divinely…
In the second century BCE, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs instead of mitzvah observance and belief in G‑d. Against all odds, a small band of faithful but poorly armed Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the…