The counting of the Omer is intimately connected to the Land of Israel, declaring the first crops of the land as belonging to God, and ...
Read MoreThe second half of this week's parsha, Shmini, deals with the laws of kashrut, the dietary laws. The Torah itself does not explicitly give a ...
Read MoreThe Seder – Seminar in a Meal The Seder is structured around the fulfillment of a number of Biblical and Rabbinic commandments – The Paschal lamb ...
Read MoreThe Meshech Chochmah on the Four Cups (Parshas VaEirah) Our Sages instituted 4 cups of wine at the seder and the Talmud Yerushalmi says that each ...
Read MorePesach celebrates a historic event – the freeing of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt 3333 years ago. The Torah recounts how Hashem intervened ...
Read MoreOne of the most peculiar laws of Purim is the obligation to drink wine, and even become intoxicated. As the Talmud states, “A person is ...
Read MoreThe Purim story begins about 900 years after the Exodus from Egypt. The Jews had been living in Israel continually, since they first entered with ...
Read MoreI recently cited Thomas Hobbes in an article that I wrote, and I received criticism for bringing a non-Jewish source in a Torah article. I ...
Read MoreI confess that we in the Becher home are coffee fanatics. We only buy recently roasted beans, grind them in a ceramic grinder, make pour-over ...
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