Celebration of Hanukkah The biblical month of Kislev is the month in which the festival of Hanukkah is always celebrated. During the period of the Second Temple, which had been rebuilt by Ezra and Nehemiah, the Greeks, under the gründliche leadership of Antiochus IV, invaded Israel. These hostilities against Israel had begun from the time...
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In the year 1944 a group of ragged Jewish prisoners gathered for yet another very tiring work assignment in concentration camp Auschwitz. Jews were starved, tortured and murdered everywhere. The least expression of Jewish faith was strictly prohibited, reasons for execution by Nazi guards. But on that Rosh HaShanah, a group of courageous Jews managed...
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Seven weeks after the holiday called ‘Pesach’, we celebrate Shavuot, the holiday of harvesting. The time in between these two holidays is the one in which Israel harvests barley. This is the time that Israel produces vegetables and fruit. This means it is a very busy period for those who work on the land. However,...
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Heavenly present In a short, intensivce course of 50 days Israel got prepared in order to receive a heavenly present. Those 50 days started with the exodus from Egypt. A literally killing life of slavery and the ten great kicks (plagues) with which the Lord delivered Israel made a heavy impression, both on us and...
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Space to think The month of Niesan 5779 is the month in which we celebrate Passover and remove chamets from our homes in advance. Chamets, sourdough, is spiritually the symbol of our puffiness and sins: all things that keep us from a healthy, reconciled relationship with the Eternal. Passover teaches us that there is no...
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Liberation Rosh Hashana starts this year on Friday evening September 18 after sunset. The month of Tishri is the seventh month of the Jewish calendar year. Once it was the first month and that is why the first of the three autumn festivals is called: Israeli New Year, Rosh Hashanah. But since the Exodus from...
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The round loaf with ‘no beginning and no end’ symbolizes continuity of life. This challah is baked for Rosh HaShanah, the first and most important New Moon feast at the beginning of the Jewish calendar. We wish each other Shana Tovah, means “A good year”. The sweetness symbolizes the goodness that we receive from our...
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Awesome Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur and the days in between are called “Yamim Noraim” and it means “Awesome days”. Also called the “Days of Conversion”, in Hebrew: “Ashereth Yemee Teshuvah”. This period of: Rosh HaShanah, the days in between and then the closing with Yom Kippur. Rosh HaShanah is seen in the Bible as...
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Shavuot The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) is the culmination of the confidence that Adonai gave to created man (Adam), but that was so cruelly violated by us. After all, Adonai had created humanity out of chaos (The earth was desolate and empty) for the purpose of serving and obeying Him. If we didn’t answer to...
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According to Jewish tradition, there are several levels of insight into the story of Hanukkah. There is the first level, of religious freedom and the people as a unity with the Torah as a law book. Never in the history of Israel had the oppression, attack and devastation been so bad. Not among the Assyrians...
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