Years ago, I had just arrived at seminary in Israel and soon after I learned that a friend who was key to inspiring my journey had misrepresented herself to me. I was confused, upset and didn’t know how to continue having a spiritual experience when I had been so let down. I confided in a […]

  This Sunday begins the joyful minor holiday of Tu b’Av, the fifteenth of the month of Av. The Talmud says besides Yom Kippur, there was no other holy day as happy for the Jews as Tu b’Av. In the times of the Temple, unmarried Jewish women would dress in white and dance in the vineyards, […]

The culmination of the Three Weeks, an annual time of mourning the destruction of The Beis HaMikdash (Holy Temple) is Tisha b’Av. It is the saddest day of the Jewish year and the most calamitous in our history. So great was our pain on this day as a nation, that each year we commemorate it […]

In the 1960s, New York-born secular Jew Sam Zeitlin loved cycling and wanted to follow his passion all the way to the Olympics. He trained incredibly hard and even earned himself the nickname, “Brooklyn Lightning.” He made it all the way to the U.S. Pan American Cycling Team and attended the 1967 U.S. Olympic Pre-Trials, […]

A special time of mourning for the Beis HaMikdash interrupts our regularly scheduled summer fun each year, as we enter into the three weeks leading up to Tisha b’Av (the 9th of Av). The saddest day in the Jewish Calendar, Tisha b’Av marks the destruction of the Temples, as well as several other major tragedies […]

The ability to practice Judaism freely has existed since our nation’s founding. The Fourth of July, aka the birthday of the United States of America, is always a great occasion to remember our blessings in being able to live in the “Medina Shel Chesed.” If you happen to come by a time machine, here are […]