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Featured Topic
Ketubah
A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract, outlining the rights and responsibilities between spouses. It is an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage.
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden features in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis. God plants the garden, causes trees to grow there, and places Adam in the garden to work and preserve it. After Eve and Adam eat forbidden fruit, God drives them out. The Garden of Eden has been the subject of analysis and discussion throughout thousands of years of the Jewish textual tradition.
Esau
Esau was the oldest son of Isaac and Rebecca and the brother of Jacob. Known for this skill as a huntsman, he gave up his birthright to Jacob and was later tricked out of his blessing.
Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook
Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook was one of the major Torah personalities of the early 20th century and an influential leader in both Lithuania and the land of Israel. A master of many facets of Jewish literature, he wrote halakhic and aggadic works, philosophical and mystical tracts, responsa, and commentaries. His voluminous correspondence also covers a wide range of topics. In 1904, he moved to the land of Israel to serve as the chief rabbi of Jaffa. He organized a famous tour of leading rabbis of the Old Yishuv to see firsthand the developing communities of the pioneers of the New Yishuv. He also strongly promoted Jewish return to agriculture, giving further halakhic support to an earlier ruling allowing Jews to work the land in the sabbatical year as long as it was sold to non-Jews for that year. In 1914, he travelled to Europe to attend the world Agudat Yisrael convention and was stranded there when World War I broke out. He spent the war in Switzerland and England and had a great impact upon the Jewish communities in those places. Upon his return to the land of Israel after the war, in 1917, he was appointed rabbi of Jerusalem and, in 1921, the first chief rabbi of the land of Israel. He also founded the yeshiva known today as Merkaz Harav to train a new cadre of scholars who would be conversant in prevalent cultural modes, capable of explicating Jewish practice, and teaching in a manner that would speak to the young, nationalist, passionate, but religiously disassociated pioneers.
This Week’s Torah Portion
Eikev
In Eikev (“As a Result”), Moses recounts events that happened in the desert, including the manna, the golden calf, and Aaron's death. Moses describes the blessings God will bestow upon the Israelites if they follow God’s law and the punishments they will encounter if they disobey.
On the Jewish Calendar
Summer
The Torah first mentions that concept of summer in the book of Genesis after the story of the flood. The Bible also uses the Hebrew word for summer, kayitz, to refer to a type of fruit, likely dried dates. In rabbinic literature, the summer months are occasionally referred to as "tekufat Tammuz," which means the period beginning with the Hebrew month of Tammuz (and ending at the end of the Hebrew month of Elul). Various laws and customs are associated with seasons and seasonal changes.