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Customarily, the candles are placed in the menorah from right to left but lit from left to right. Here's why.

Tu BiShvat (Hebrew for the 15^th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat) is the new year of the trees.

Lag BaOmer is the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer.

We read the entire Torah over a year, beginning the cycle on the same week as Simchat Torah. The Torah is divided into 54 portions – or parashiyot – and, generally, one portion is read each week on Shabbat.

There are certain places that do not permit open flames, including hospitals, nursing homes, and dorm rooms. What should Jews in these spaces do for Hanukkah?

A menorah refers to a candelabrum, usually one with seven branches. 

A common explanation is that we eat latkes (potato pancakes) because they are cooked in oil and this remind us of the miracle that a single cruse of oil found in the Temple lasted for eight nights.

Tu BiShvat is the “New Year of the Trees.”

The observance of Tishah B’Av (literally the 9th day of the month of Av) poses some interesting questions for Reform Jews. The day is one of fasting and mourning, for the destruction of both the First and the Second Temple in Jerusalem is said to have taken place on that day. While other tragic events in Jewish history may have coincided with the ninth of Av, it is the Temple’s destruction (churban habayit) that dominates the day’s ritual and liturgy. Reform theology has not generally looked upon the loss of the Temple and the expulsion of the people of Israel from its land as a catastrophe to be lamented by liberal Jews.