Shabbat, The Sabbath

Apply for a Blog

Justine Johnston Hemmestad

Jun 18, 2025, 5:54 AM

Israel Strikes Iran, from the Dayton Leader

“Morale is high,” the Nameless One says the day after the initial Israeli execution of Operation Am Kalavi. At 3 am the sirens went off to alert Israelis that Israel had attacked Iran. Israel had stepped in to thwart the imminent...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Jun 10, 2025, 4:47 PM

The Jewish Home is a Mini-Sanctaury

Parshat Behaalotcha begins with the topic of lighting the menorah (Bamidbar 8:1-2): God spoke to Moshe saying: “Speak to Aaron and say to him: ‘When you light the lamps toward the face of the menorah shall the seven lamps cast...

Ronnie Katz Gerber

Jun 5, 2025, 11:42 PM

Celebrating Shabbat in a Post-Surgery Rehab: An Apparition or a Kindness?

Image supplied by Hadassah.

He stands there, all calm, watching me as I lay in bed, staring at the black letters dancing across a dry erase board in front of me. He’s a nice-looking man in his late 30s, I guess, with a...

Jun 4, 2025, 8:28 PM

Shalom Aleichem

The two words of the Friday night poem/song "Shalom Aleichem" are a traditional Jewish greeting, meaning "may you have peace.” The poem has the reciters and singers greet angels and ask them for blessings of peace and protection. It...

May 30, 2025, 12:18 PM

Jewish Comedy Is Having a Moment—and ‘Bad Shabbos’ Proves It

PHOTO BY Noom Peerapong via Unsplash

Jewish humor has long been Hollywood’s beating heart, from the sharp irreverence of Mel Brooks to the uncomfortable humor of Larry David. But in 2024, Jewish comedy isn’t just surviving; it’s evolving, bending to reflect a new generation’s identity,...

May 29, 2025, 5:24 AM

Do You Have a Fear of Phyllo? Mushroom and Cheese Strudels for Shabbat

Mushroom & Cheese Strudel recipe photo courtesy of 52 Shabbats - Clara Rice.

The versatile dough sheets known as phyllo have an unearned reputation for being finicky to use and I have been on a personal mission to teach others how to use them to create delicious and crispy appetizers, main dishes...

May 26, 2025, 11:06 PM

Our Last Shabbat

Let’s begin with a sadly serious question: when you’re in the final innings of the game, what would you like to remain? For my grandmother Lillian Berman (Z”l) it was the Shabbat candles - along with their close relative...

May 16, 2025, 5:25 PM

Emor: Holy Days

'Above the Clouds' by Taylor Van Riper (2017)

Within the passages of Emor, the Jewish calendar takes shape, G-d laying out a yearly cycle constructed around pillars of holiness, the ’מועדי ה, ‘the fixed times of G-d’ (Leviticus 23:2). These fixed times consist of the festivals of...

Apr 25, 2025, 1:44 PM

Kosher Burgers Freshly Ironed and Pressed

Last week, I shared a blog post about some of the more amusing and bizarrely inspiring moments from my career, driven by my efforts to keep strictly kosher, observe Shabbat, and follow other religious rules. I received positive feedback...

Yulia Medovoy Edelshtain

Apr 23, 2025, 9:58 PM

It feels so good to be in Jerusalem! Los Angeles was out of this world. Everything we set out to accomplish, happened. Absolute miracles, from appointments to business meetings. The best part was seeing friends and community, that is what...

Load more