Created on the eve of a community’s destruction, the Lisbon Mahzor survived the horrors of persecution and expulsion, and then wandered the world as one of the few surviving treasures of a rare religious and artistic tradition. At some point along the war, its three volumes were separated. Only recently, thanks to the efforts of the National Library of Israel, have all three been reunited in Jerusalem, and now they have even been joyfully rejoined in digital form.
When “The Hebrew Hammer” Struck Twice on Rosh Hashanah
Ninety years ago, American baseball star Hank Greenberg played on the Jewish New Year holiday, even hitting two home runs, but later sat out Yom Kippur
“And Charity Will Save From Death”: How Rabbi Akiva’s Daughter Saved Her Own Life
The stargazers predicted that Rabbi Akiva’s daughter would be bitten by a poisonous snake on her wedding day. The great sage now faced a cruel question: How to contend with such a prophecy? The Talmud tells of his choice, and how his daughter ultimately saved herself, unlike a certain Sleeping Beauty…
The Story of Israel Told Through Rosh Hashanah Greeting Cards
There was a time when Israeli greeting cards designed to celebrate the Jewish New Year were the most common mail item in the country. These charming postcards expressed the sentiments of their time in every Jewish home in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world
Once Every Seven Years: Dismissing Debt on Rosh Hashanah
The concept of Shemittah – the Jewish Sabbatical Year – includes among other things a provision to release people from debts owed to others. Though clearly a noble and moral sentiment, such a law can easily lead to problematic situations and even exploitation. Levi Cooper delves into one possible solution to this issue, provided by a 2000 year-old legal loophole…
How Tishrei Became the First Month of the Hebrew Calendar
How did we come to celebrate the New Year in the fall when in the Bible it was celebrated in the spring? And what is the origin of the first month’s peculiar name?
Gandhi’s 1939 Rosh Hashanah Greeting to the Jewish People
Sent 80 years ago, on the day World War II broke out, the greeting recently surfaced
Who Spilled Honey on the 18th Century Manuscript?
You really should listen to your mother when she tells you not to read at the dinner table…
Is the Shofar Really the Voice of God?
What is the Freudian complex behind the origins of this mysterious instrument? What is the shofar’s connection to the High Holy Days? And does it have anything to do with music?
The Incarnations of the “Avinu Malkeinu” Piyut from the Talmud to Barbara Streisand
Take a musical voyage through three melodies written to different verses from the “Avinu Malkeinu” prayer, embarking from the widespread Ashkenazi tune, passing through a familiar Chassidic niggun and ending with Max Janowski’s melody.
