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May 27, 2026, 9:57 PM

How Your Rabbi Writes A Sermon

A rabbi, who looks surprisingly similar to my wife, hard at work on her sermon from within her book dwelling

It may seem like the High Holidays are a lifetime away, but for your Rabbi, the prep for sermon writing starts now! But how does a Rabbi go about writing these sermons? What is their process? How do they...

Gabriella Jacobs

May 27, 2026, 8:24 PM

Shavuot here and there

By the time you read this, Shavuot may have passed, and I will hopefully still be asleep recovering from it. Shavuot may honestly be the only holiday I hands-down like better in Israel than in America, with one minor exception...

May 7, 2026, 8:45 PM

The Chronological Imagination (Behar-Bechukotai)

I want, in this study, to look at one of Judaism’s most distinctive and least understood characteristics – the chronological imagination. Sometimes a modern discovery so changes our ways of looking at things that it allows us to revisit ancient...

Apr 20, 2026, 6:59 PM

The Belonging I Only Recognized After Leaving

I never thought that after leaving Israel, the holidays would be something I missed. For me, holidays were always synonymous with family. They smelled like my mother’s latkes, Bubba’s matzah ball soup and my aunt’s brisket that I never touched...

Menachem Creditor

Apr 15, 2026, 10:11 PM

Reentering History: The Days of Rising

Yesterday we gathered in learning and in testimony for Yom HaShoah veHagevruah, the Day of Holocaust and Heroism. But that day does not stand alone. Time, in our tradition, is never isolated. It flows. We now find ourselves in the...

Dec 31, 2025, 7:04 AM

The Benefits of Being Jewish

Being Jewish is often framed as a story of suffering. Antisemitism, persecution, security concerns, these dominate the public conversation. While those realities exist and must be confronted, they are not the definition of Jewish life. Reducing Jewish identity to...

Mihran Kalaydjian

Dec 14, 2025, 3:48 PM

A Very Happy Chanukah: From Light in the United States to Light in Israel

Chanukah arrives each year with a quiet confidence. It does not demand attention. It does not overwhelm with spectacle. Instead, it offers something far more enduring: a reminder that even the smallest light, tended with care and conviction, can...

Dec 14, 2025, 1:17 PM

How Israel’s Calendar Protects against Holiday Hijacking

Hebrew (Jewish) calendar with approximate alignments to the Gregorian calendar. Image © Eden Aviv, 2023. Licensed under CC0 (public domain dedication). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Floating Hebrew Dates, a Surprising and Clever Shield for National Identity Commemorative days — whether holidays or solemn observances — are more than days off. They serve as powerful markers of identity, memory, and narrative. Around the world, rivals sometimes...

Shamai Leibowitz

Dec 6, 2025, 12:37 AM

When Holiness Becomes a Monstrosity

One of the most important calendar adjustments is known by the mnemonic: "Lo ADU Rosh" (לא אד״ו ראש) literally: Rosh Hashanah cannot fall on days 1, 4, or 6. Meaning: the first day of Rosh Hashanah cannot fall on a Sunday (א),...

Mihran Kalaydjian

Nov 29, 2025, 9:17 AM

This Thanksgiving, American Jews Are Done Staying Quiet

This Thanksgiving does not feel like the ones we grew up with, and there is no pretending otherwise. For American Jews, this holiday — long cherished as a celebration of safety, gratitude, and belonging — arrives during one of...

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