Chava bears two children, Kayin (Cain) and Hevel, and each takes on a profession. Time passes, Kayin brings an offering to G-d, and Hevel follows suit. Then the Torah describes these … more

With parshat Tetzaveh, something new enters Judaism: Torat Kohanim, the world and mindset of the priest. Rapidly it becomes a central dimension of Judaism. It dominates the next book of the … more

In the course of blessing the Jewish people, Bilaam uttered words (Num. 23:8-9) that have come to seem to many to encapsulate Jewish history: How can I curse whom G-d has not cursed? How … more

The following is an extract from the introduction to the Koren Sacks Pesach Machzor. Pesach is the oldest and most transformative story of hope ever told. It tells of how an otherwise … more

Maxim Cohen was born in Morocco and made aliyah as child. He enlisted in the IDF, but left Israel with his parents after the Six-Day War to live in France. On Yom Kippur in … more

Cold; so cold it cuts through the rags that were once clothes, straight to the bone. There was a time this cold so occupied your very being, you could concentrate on nothing else. But that was long ago. Darkness; so dark it sometimes seems more than the mere absence of light; it seems almost tangible. You vaguely recall a time when you were obsessed with determining exactly where you were, pacing in the darkness to examine your environs. You figured out you were in some sort of a concrete cell, perhaps six feet square, but not much more than that. You used to wonder what color the walls were, never having been allowed to see them, but that curiosity has long ago been replaced with more basic needs. more

Aong with all the challenging events of this part summer including the terrible kidnapping and murder of Gilad, Eyal and Naftali, I heard an incredible story: A teacher in a resource room for … more

One of the more challenging fact-finding questions we encounter every year is “how old are the Biblical heroes in the tales which are shared with us?” In some cases the Torah tells us, … more

Raymond Smullyan, in his book “5000 B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies,” posits the question of two identical twin brothers, one who always lies and the other who always tells the … more

When Yaakov first arrived in Haran, he encountered shepherds waiting at a well. It might have been the same well where his mother met Eliezer 97 years earlier. And if it was, things had certainly … more