Author: David Rutman

Photo Credit: Jewish Press The Torah reading on the first two days of Sukkot (Leviticus 22:26-23:44) outlines the festivals that give rhythm and structure to the Jewish year. Examining them carefully, however, we see that Sukkot is unusual and unique. One detail that had a significant influence on Jewish liturgy appears later on, in Deuteronomy […]

[embedded content] According to the NY Times, President Donald Trump’s decision to clear a path for a Turkish invasion of a broad strip of land on the Syrian side of the two countries’ border was made on the spur of the moment, in a phone call with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Overnight, Trump opened […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press It finally happened. A gas station in Takoma Park, Maryland – RS Automotives – is no longer selling gas. It has ditched its gas stations for electric-vehicle charging stations, making it the first gas station in the country to do so. Advertisement ‘); _avp.push({ tagid: article_top_ad_tagid, alias: ‘/’, type: ‘banner’, zid: […]

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Photo Credit: Jewish Press The Midrash (Vayikra Rabba 30) offers the following mashal to explain why one may not use a stolen lulav on Sukkos: A highway robber once stopped a high ranking official and robbed him of everything that he had. One day the robber was caught and was brought on trial before the […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press Mrs. Alter ran a business coordinating home visits for elderly and disabled people, paid for by Medicare. She processed the billing and payments and kept a percentage. One of her clients was a counselor, Mrs. Stern. Before Sukkos, Mrs. Alter wished her a happy holiday. “You, too,” replied Mrs. Stern. “A […]

Photo Credit: Hadas Parush / Flash 90 Rav Kook’s kever After the Noam Party dropped out of last month’s race for Knesset two days before the election, it reportedly was approached by Yahadut HaTorah (United Torah Judaism). Declare your support for us, said party representatives, and we’ll make sure that the Har HaMor Yeshiva (which […]

Photo Credit: pixabay I had been thinking about it for a while. On Yom Kippur, it crossed my mind a number of times. However, it wasn’t until this morning that I finally made the move. This morning, someone mentioned to me that somebody was impersonating me and attempting to contact people on Facebook using my […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press The haggadah has always been popular among authors and publishers, with over 10,000 different haggadot estimated to have been published over the centuries. One haggadah I recently acquired was the first to be printed in Chicago. Published in 1879, it boasts of being the “first [haggadah] to contain illustrations influenced by […]