Articles of Interest
Every day, Jews around the world live and celebrate the diverse ways we are Jewish. This prayer by Alden Solovy puts our thoughts and hopes into beautiful words. Read on...
More than a decade ago, shortly after my conversion to Judaism, I was working as a religious school tutor. One day I was having a conversation with a colleague about the haggadah that instructs us to say, "God brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm." How, I asked, could I honestly say "us?" Read on...
High Holidays
Rabbi Joshua Kullock is the Executive Director of the Union of Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the Caribbean (UJCL). He also serves the Jewish Community of Guadalajara as its spiritual leader. Rabbi Kullock discusses G-d as King as one of the main themes during the high holidays. Read on...
Amazing and Improbable Transformations
Columbian born Rabbi Juan Mejía looks at the ways in which God can be both close and far from us as we enter this holy period of reflection Read on...
Maya Resnikoff, Be'chol Lashon rabbic intern and rabbinic student at JTS, offers a meditative reflection to help guide us towards creating a world in which diversity and difference is celebrated.
Read on...
From Japanese Ikebana to English gardens, the art of floral design runs deep in many cultures. There is something mysteriously appealing to our aesthetic sense when we see different kinds of flowers and plants arranged in a harmonious pattern. In Judaism, this aesthetic satisfaction is provided by the mitzvah of the lulav or arba' minim, the four species that are shaken during the festival of Sukkot. Read on...
The humblest of the four species of the holiday of Sukkot is certainly the willow. The last species mentioned in the Torah (Leviticus 23.40), this lowly plant also does not find much favor among the rabbis of writing in the ancient commentaries who note that, without a pleasant smell or pleasing taste, the willow represents those Jews who have neither Torah or good deeds. Read on...
Torah Teaching: A Light to the World
Parashat Terumah, contains God’s detailed instructions for the building of the mishkan in the wilderness. We learn here that the Israelites are to construct a sanctuary so that God might dwell in their midst. The material and dimensional specifications are provided in staggering detail. Read on...
During the Passover season, we revisit the story of how the people of Israel, in a reversal of humans searching for the Divine, are pursued and rescued by God. During the process, what has been a family and a tribal story becomes a national story. It is in our leaving Egypt that Israel becomes the Jewish people. Read on...
Shavuot: Unity Through Diversity
The biblical Book of Ruth has everything a good story should have, a dramatic mysterious opening, strong characters, a suspenseful storyline with tension, a happy resolution and some romance thrown in for good measure. Traditionally, the Book of Ruth is associated with the holiday of Shavuot. One reason for the pairing is that the former is set in the harvest period which aligns with the latter’s celebration of the first harvest. Read on...