By Shelley Neese— Thursday, May 28th, is the first night of Shavuot. Our friends at the Rogatchi Foundation are offering Jerusalem Connection readers a special chance to win a unique piece of Jewish art if you can answer a piece of Jewish holiday trivia. On Shavuot, Jews celebrate the events that took place on Mount…
By Joan Nathan, NY Times— WHEN Emily Moore, a Seattle-based chef and instructor, was invited to consult on recipes for Streit’s Matzo, she assumed that the baked goods would have their traditional heft, because no leavening can be used during Passover. Not so, said Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, a member of a prominent rabbinic dynasty, who…
Passover 2020 will not be the kind of Passover we know. Starting on April 8th and lasting till April 16th, normally this is a time for extended families and friends of the family to all gather together for the most festive (and lengthy) meal on the holy calendar. Throughout the meal of matzah, wine, bitter…
By Arlene Bridges Samuels, Times of Israel— Like everyone who is remaining home to hopefully flatten and slow the Corona Virus, my husband and I search for good ways to fill our time; gardening, daily neighborhood walks, books, old movies, the discipline of both morning and evening prayers, and cooking special meals. Yesterday, we ran…
By Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe— FOR COUNTLESS JEWS, the Passover Seder this year will be a distressingly unfamiliar experience. There will be no relatives flying in from out of town, no host families with whom to share the meal and its rituals, no group Seders at the campus Hillel or local Chabad House, no…
By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, Ettinger Report— 1. Chanukah’s historical context is narrated in the four Books of the Maccabees, The Scroll of Antiochus and The Wars of the Jews. The Greek Empire was split following the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE), who held Judaism in high esteem. In 175 BCE, the Syrian/Seleucid…
By Steven Zvi, Aish— The sukkah commemorates the miracle that God gave us in the desert in the form of the Ananei Ha-Kavod (the Clouds of Glory). These miraculous clouds protected us from the surrounding enemies as well as provided us with shelter from all the negative elements associated with living in a desert. Yet…
Zechariah 14:16-19 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they…
By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel initiative” More on Sukkot and other Jewish holidays, see Ettinger’s ebook: Jewish Holidays, Guide for the Perplexed. 1. US-Israel special ties are highlighted by Columbus Day (October 14, 2019), which is always celebrated around Sukkot (October 13-20, 2019). According to “Columbus Then and Now” (Miles Davidson,…
By Theophilus Lucky, First Fruits of Zion— Yom Kippur is neither a festive nor happy day. It does not commemorate the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt. Rather, like Rosh HaShanah, it is a day of remembrance before HaShem. Rosh HaShanah paves the way to Yom Kippur. It is a day of remembrance…