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Allen S. Maller

Feb 13, 2026, 11:03 PM

99 Names and the Beauty of Dead Trees

I have always been a lover of trees. I love their varied shapes and colors, their branches and foliage. Since the Torah is called a Tree of Life I have also seen trees as a bridge connecting earth and...

Robert Lichtman

Feb 9, 2026, 6:12 AM

Valentine’s Day Is Not Jewish, But Love Is.

When Adam and Eve celebrated their first Shabbat together, did he bring her flowers from The Garden? Did he sing Eyshet Chayil with one finger holding the place in his brand-new siddur while alternately gazing at his wife? Our tradition...

Ally Karpel-Pomerantz

Aug 7, 2025, 10:24 PM

A Shared Calling: Tu B’Av Reflections

We met on the first Shabbat of our Year in Israel—jetlagged, curious, and surrounded by strangers who would soon become classmates, future colleagues, close friends, and life partners. From the outset, our time together was shaped by questions: not...

Aug 7, 2025, 10:02 AM

The Brady Bunch: A Tu B’Av Story For Our Times

I wasted some of my best years watching The Brady Bunch - the iconic American sit-com in the early 1970s about a widowed man with three young sons who marries a woman with three young daughters. There's also a...

Aug 6, 2025, 8:15 PM

Nachamu, Nachamu: A Time for Comfort and Healing

Hostages, war, mass shootings, political turmoil, and worldwide antisemitism. It’s been a difficult year: 50 hostages still captive in Gaza including 28 confirmed dead, chilling Hamas hostage videos, a seemingly interminable war in Gaza, hundreds of Israeli casualties, over...

Aug 6, 2025, 10:27 AM

Saffron Rosewater Pistachio Cake for Jewish Valentine’s Day

Saffron Rosewater Pistachio Cake photo credit: Faith Kramer (author).

Coming soon is one of the most joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar – Tu B’Av. It’s a day historically known for marriages, matchmaking and merrymaking. Sometimes, it’s called the Jewish Day of Love or Jewish Valentine’s Day. Though Tu...

Aug 6, 2025, 10:20 AM

Tu B’av – The Story of Jewish Resilience

A poster that reads "Am Yisrael Chai"-The Nation of Israel Lives. Photo by Faygie Holt

While in modern Israeli culture, the 15th of Av (Tu B'av) is widely celebrated as a type of Valentine's Day and referred to as Yom HaAhavah (Day of Love), its significance runs much deeper, personifying Jewish resilience that has...

Reuven Chaim Klein

Aug 3, 2025, 9:52 PM

Instruments of Suckling – shadayim, dadim, atinim

The Torah commands us to write the passages of the Shema on parchment and place them on the doorposts of our homes (Deut. 6:9, 11:20). These encased passages are often referred to as a mezuzah, although in Biblical Hebrew, mezuzah literally refers to the...

Sep 17, 2024, 11:53 AM

‘Us against the world’ isn’t true and it’s not a winning strategy

People walk by a large billboard reading "Together we will be victorious" at Azrieli Tower, in Tel Aviv. December 19, 2023. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Despite Hamas's false claims, Jews have allies in this global religious conflict and the path to victory is through unity and alliance

Reuven Chaim Klein

Sep 14, 2024, 11:01 PM

Hebrew Bachelors

The Talmud (Pesachim 113a) that each and every day, Hashem “announces” in the Heavens that He is impressed with three categories of people: poor people who exert themselves to help return lost objects to their rightful owners, rich people...

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