The great Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev was known for his love of Jews and his refusal to denigrate another. It is told of him that once, on the morning of Yom Kippur, he saw a man smoking outside the synagogue. Yitzhak approached the man and said, “Surely, my friend, you do not know that it…
Archaeologists funded by Christian organizations are taking a shovel — again — to Tel Shiloh, an archaeological site that was a major center of worship for ancient Israelites. They’re looking for the ark of the covenant, the holy chest containing the two stone tablets on which Moses is said to have written the Ten Commandments,…
Researchers from Cambridge have identified the author of an 10th century collection of biblical scriptures: Samuel ben Jacob, the same scribe who penned the Leningrad Codex. The Codex is the main Hebrew copy of the bible on which most modern translations are based. The manuscript contains sections from Prophets, Judges and Kings, and was likely…
It has been twenty years since Scholastic Books made the best choice in its history by publishing a children’s novel about an orphaned boy who finds out that he’s a wizard. While Judaism generally does not make a big deal about birthdays (the only Biblical character who celebrates his birthday is Pharaoh), we are no…
(JTA) — Women who read aloud from the Torah at a synagogue in Marseille were subjected to threats and insults by congregants after local rabbis condemned the event. The dozens of threats and insults, made on social networks and in emails, started coming in Saturday night after the group of half a dozen women read…
I don’t know about you, but until President Trump’s trip to the Middle East last month, I had never heard of a “sword dance.” Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, you’ll recall, were welcomed to Saudi Arabia at the Murabba Palace, near Riyadh, where they joined a lively group of Saudis clad in traditional…
We are living in an age when world leaders regularly deny historical facts — and therefore, defining what the word “lie” means is an urgent concern. It’s also an ancient concern. Both the Torah and the Talmud seem a bit clairvoyant these days in their interest in delineating what a lie is, when it’s okay…
Hundreds of women joined Women of the Wall for the group’s monthly Rosh Chodesh service, which included a Torah scroll smuggled in to the women’s section of the Western Wall. Among the some 300 women who assembled for the service on Thursday morning to mark the new Hebrew month of Iyar were those from nine…
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