A giant of a man. A new chapter of Bekhorot that began on yesterday’s daf pivoted from blemishes that disqualify a firstborn animal to blemishes that disqualify a human priest from performing ...

Leviticus 21:17–21 establishes that a priest with certain physical features cannot serve in the Temple and provides a list of those disqualifying features and the people who have them, including the ...

Bourekas are a Sephardi, and more specifically Turkish, treat coming from the word borek which means pie. They are often made with phyllo dough and can be shaped in a variety of ways. In Turkey they ...

On today’s daf, the Gemara discusses the consequences for selling a range of products that should not be consumed: The sages taught in a beraita: In a case where one sells meat to another and it was ...

Jewish tradition defines several stages in the process of mourning, which correspond quite well to the modern understanding of the emotional process of grief. Traditionally, Jewish funerals take place ...

This Chinese parlor game found Jewish enthusiasts in the Catskills. Four women sit around a table, each with a card of various numbers and colors, arranged like a secret code. Tiles are exchanged like ...

The kabbalistic false messiah gained a mass following in the 17th century — until he converted to Islam. While faith in the coming of the messiah is a linchpin of Judaism, Jews have traditionally ...

Learn the history and symbolism of the Jewish wedding canopy, and the various options for finding or making your own. The huppah (also commonly spelled chuppah) is a symbol of God’s presence at a ...

The widespread violence of Nov. 9-10, 1938 signaled an escalation in the Nazi reign of terror. The unprecedented pogrom of November 9-10, 1938 in Germany has passed ...

This renowned scholar led the non-Hasidic Jewish world into modernity. Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman Kremer — better known as the Vilna Gaon or sometimes as HaGra, an acronym for his Hebrew title, ...

The Jewish God is not merely a philosophical concept, a final cause which explains the existence of the universe. He is a personal God, the true hero of the biblical stories, and the guide and mentor ...

“Praised be You, God…who commands us to busy ourselves with words of Torah.” Talmud torah (that is, the study of sacred Jewish texts) is so important in Jewish tradition the daily liturgy begins with ...