Jewish Holidays and Culture

The Most Memorable Seder

April 10, 2012

Chabad Kathmandu As an early icebreaker just before we began to read from the Passover Haggadah Friday night, my wife Jody asked the assembled family and guests to name their most memorable Seder. For me, there was no question. Exactly one year ago, our family was sitting in a luxurious ballroom at the Yak and […]

Read the full article →

Gur Hasidim and Sex: Haaretz Spices it Up

February 16, 2012

The “Beis Yisroel” with his Hasidim They say that nothing sells newspapers like sex and Haaretz had a doozy last week: the second part in an expose (OK, just a spicy research study) on the sex lives of a particular group of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel – the Gur Hasidim. The article was the talk […]

Read the full article →

Hanukah, Extremism and Light

December 27, 2011

Maccabee t-shirt on sale from Australian website Hanukah is probably the most confounding holiday on the Jewish calendar. If we move beyond the toys and the gelt of 20th century Christmas catch-up, the story itself has been interpreted in so many ways that it’s difficult to get a lock on the pshat (the simplest understanding). […]

Read the full article →

Dueling Eicha’s…with Wheels

August 9, 2011

Segways at the tayelet The holiday of Tisha B’av has befallen us (yes, pun intended) and Jews all over the world are spending the day reflecting, fasting or otherwise using the holiday’s restrictions to avoid shaving and bathing for a day. On the evening of Tisha B’av, it is traditional to hear the book of […]

Read the full article →

L’ag b’Omer is Saturday Night. Or Maybe Not

May 18, 2011

The date of the next bonfire is no vanity The Jewish “bonfire” holiday of L’ag b’Omer is this Saturday night. Or maybe not. L’ag b’Omer commemorates the day some 2,000 years ago that a plague killing 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva ended. “L’ag” stands for lamed-gimel – in Hebrew the number 33. The Omer refers […]

Read the full article →

Aviv’s Bar Mitzvah

March 25, 2011

It’s been an incredible few weeks around Aviv’s bar mitzvah. Family came in from overseas, we had a slew of great activities (from a lovely walk in the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens to a treasure hunt in the Old City – more on that in an upcoming post) all leading up to the big day. The […]

Read the full article →

Secular Rabbis to the Rescue?

February 10, 2011

Rabbi Sivan Maas The Jerusalem Post reported this weekend about a rabbinic ordination ceremony of a very different kind. I was there at the event too, which took place in December. What made it all so unique was that the new rabbis were all entirely secular. And they don’t believe in God, at least not […]

Read the full article →

Religious Mustard and Other Hebrew Acronyms

January 26, 2011

Hodaya, the most famous “datlashit” from the TV show “Srugim” In the U.S. and most western countries, Jews tend to identify their religious affiliation through one of the major Jewish movements, be it Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal, and even Secular Humanistic Judaism. Not so in Israel, where one’s religious standing is far more […]

Read the full article →

War Over the Airwaves in Eilat

December 16, 2010

Resting at the top of the mountain In 1947, the U.N. partition plan designated the sleepy port of Eilat as the southernmost tip of the new Jewish state. It wasn’t until the final days of the War of Independence, however, when Israel took control of the town in an operation that surprised the small platoon […]

Read the full article →

To Brit or Not to Brit

November 25, 2010

We recently attended a brit mila in Jerusalem. Prior to the ceremony, the father of the newborn expressed some misgivings about the whole concept of circumcision. Of course my friend was going to go through with the ceremony – this is Israel, after all, where for a Jewish boy not to be circumcised is rare […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →