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Where can I find the dates of the Jewish holidays for next year?
If you are planning a simchah (joyous occasion) or significant event and want to find the corresponding date on the Jewish calendar, check out our Jewish Holiday Calendar.
What is the Jewish symbolism of the pomegranate?
The pomegranate is one of the Seven Species mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as being native to the Land of Israel.
Wholly Jewish: Max Antman: The Queerness and Politics of Torah
How can we embrace Judaism from not only a queer perspective, but also a “political” one? Max Antman (he/him), a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, discusses how being a gay man influences his reading of Torah, how his Reform synagogue empowered his gay identity, and the sacred relationship between activism and studying Jewish text.
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Wholly Jewish: Laura: Creating Peace Out of Wholeness
This week’s guest, Cantor Laura Stein, shares her perspectives on how we can best care for those around us, the (lack of) tension between being Jewish and being a lesbian, and how her spiritual leadership inspires her social work at Mount Sinai Hospital's Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery.
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Baby Name Search
Find a Jewish name for your new addition.
Did you mean Yom Kippur instead of Yom Kippor?
Yom Kippur means "Day of Atonement" and refers to the annual Jewish observance of fasting, prayer, and repentance. Part of the High Holidays, which also includes Rosh HaShanah (the Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur is considered the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
What Is Elul?
Elul is the Hebrew month preceding Rosh HaShanah, during which one engages in self-reflection and evaluation in preparation for the High Holidays. Traditionally, the shofar is blown each day during the month.
What is a Sukkah?
A sukkah is a temporary, hut-like dwelling built during the holiday of Sukkot. (In fact, the word sukkot is the plural of sukkah.)
Stories We Tell: The Scholar and the Merchant
When a scholar boards a ship with a group of merchants, the merchants are confused. What does a scholar have to sell that could compete with their radiant perfume and beautiful scarves? When pirates storm the ship, they find out in this story retold by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. You can find a written version of this story, titled “The Sefer Torah,” in the book Three Times Chai: 54 Rabbis Tell Their Favorite Stories by Laney Katz Becker.
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Stories We Tell: Whatever You Do, Don't Bite Off the Pitom
Every year Moshe begs his father for an etrog, and every year, his father says they can’t afford it, until one special Sukkot when they scrimp and save and finally bring home an etrog. But what happens when Moshe can’t resist the pitom and Boris the Beet Borscht Baron from Belarus with very strong hands comes to bless the etrog? As Rabbi Steven Bob reminds us, “Whatever You Do, Don’t Bite Off the pitom”!
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