The radical transition from the Yom Kippur solemnity to the Simchat Torah revelry can be dizzying, but it makes sense. There is a method to the madness.
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Jokes about confession abound, but confession is no laughing matter. Judaism takes confession seriously, especially on Yom Kippur. In Judaism, confession is an intensely private affair. It is only between you and G-d. No one else is invited or permitted to overhear your confession. We must confess silently. The public …
Now Really!
After the passing of Rabbi Yehudah, the third century sage who edited the Mishnah, his colleagues proclaimed that the age of humility had come to an end. Several centuries later the Babylonian sage Rabbi Yosef offered a correction. Don’t say humility has died, he asserted, because there is I. …
When you think of the Sukkah, you think of walls and sechach—a foliage roof. Yet, the name Sukkah is all about the foliage roof, the sechach; that is why it is called Sukkah. Sukkah is a derivative of sechach. The foliage roof indeed makes the Sukkah; otherwise, it is just …
Water from the Garden of Eden
Immersion in a Mikvah, a ritual pool of water, releases man from
his imperfect state. When we emerge from the Mikvah we are reborn; the
imperfections and impurities of the past evaporate and we are permeated
with a fresh sense of renewal.
The Torah tells
us of a river that …
These past two days have been the most difficult for our people in the last fifty years. It was Simchat Torah, a time for rejoicing, yet it was a time of horror. Nearly a thousand members of our family were brutally murdered, more than a hundred were taken hostage, and …
