Why were our Temples in ancient Jerusalem destroyed? Jewish tradition offers answers. The first Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, because of the sins of the people of Israel. The … more

In the first mishnah of Pirkei Avot, our Sages teach that the Torah was given to us by Hashem along with the Oral Law: “Moshe received the Torah at Sinai, transmitted it to Yehoshua, who did in … more

In his effort to transmit a lasting imprint on the generation entering the Promised Land, Moshe reminds them of some of the events that defined their nationhood. Among these was the episode of the … more

Walk through the Old City, and you will find one of the oldest streets in the world. Known as the Cardo, it was built by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago and was the main thoroughfare in Jerusalem … more

When Jonathan Greenblatt replaced Abe Foxman as national director of the Anti-Defamation League in 2015, the shift from a career Jewish professional to a veteran Democratic … more

Rabbinic literature includes the names and teachings of many great and well-known sages. Yet, the rabbi who is mentioned most often in our liturgy is Rabbi Chanania ben Akashya — an obscure … more

Years ago, my mother clipped a newspaper column for me to read. At that point, I was more Israeli than American, and when I saw the long last name of the writer, “Krauthammer,” I … more

Maxim Cohen was born in Morocco and made aliyah as child. He enlisted in the IDF, but left Israel with his parents after the Six-Day War to live in France. On Yom Kippur in 1973, … more

In ancient times, if a person killed someone else accidentally, a trial could sentence the perpetrator to exile in a city of refuge, for a term that would last until the death of the kohen … more

It’s never wise to get into an argument about the Holocaust with Yad Vashem. That’s the moral of the story of Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to resolve a quarrel with … more