A video broadcast by New York’s ABC 7 channel shows chickens in cages that have died waiting to be used for kapparot, the ultra-Orthodox practice of swinging a chicken around your head to transfer your sins to it. The broadcaster reporting the video noted that, although the word kapparot means “forgiveness” in Hebrew, “it is…
When Rabbi Edward Feld was a teenager, he decided to buy a seat for High Holidays services in a synagogue where no one knew his name. Feld was raised on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and he says that there were always old synagogues that weren’t completely full even on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. By…
This High Holiday season more than most, the unspoken agreement among many families to avoid potentially explosive topics such as politics seems more sound than ever. So what’s a family to talk about? The food, of course. And since so many families will be sitting down to a dinner with brisket as its centerpiece, we…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Tzohar Rabbinical Organization in partnership with Yachad Ohr Torah Stone will host holiday services on both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, expecting to reach close to 70,000 people throughout Israel. Through its network of volunteers, 250 shofar blowers will provide their services in cities, moshavim and kibbutzim around the country and…
When you’re feeling the strain of planning a break-the-fast for 50, try a strain of Religious Reefer. A new humor video from LA comic Benny Spiewak imagines a brand of weed called “religious reefer” (technical term, “besamim”), to get you through the holiday season. The yamim noraim have never been this awesome. Whether it’s a…
I used to be embarrassed that this was my brisket recipe. It’s the first I ever cooked. It is never going to be the sophisticated brisket a superstar chef would brag about (Heinz chili sauce? Lipton Onion Soup Mix?) but it is insanely good: achingly tender, bathed in a sweet, rich, thick tomato-y sauce. Almost…
I did not grow up a religious Jew, but for my entire adult life, I’ve been a member of the Orthodox world. As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time in other people’s homes, with other people’s families; Orthodox life is built around the family, and Shabbat and holidays are desolate affairs if you’re…
It is almost noon. We are standing in the Whitney Museum in New York for Alexander Calder: Hypermobility. Included in the exhibition are some of Calder’s earliest works — motor-driven and wind-propelled abstractions, alongside some of his more famous kinetic sculptures. In a departure from the usual ‘don’t you dare touch’ museum policy, Hypermobility gives…
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