Min haMuvhar

This is the story of one Jewish family's confrontation with the Holocaust--a Sephardic family from the Island of Rhodes.

How does the Torah and Jewish Thought relate to the rest of humanity?
Join National Scholar Rabbi Hayyim Angel for a three-part series on
topics such as The Chosen People, Judaism and Racism, The Resident
Alien in the Bible, and other pertinent discussions pertaining to a
Jewish outlook toward Israel and the Nations.

Wednesdays August 12, 19, and 26, from 12:00-1:00pm Eastern Daylight Time.

The classes are open to the first 100 registrants, so please register here

Questions of genealogy are so vital because our ancestry is often a key element in our social structure, the axis on which many of our social interactions, obligations, loyalties, and emotional sentiments, turn. Although we like to believe in meritocracy, that individuals are self-made, our identities can be deeply tied to those from whom we descend.

Orthodox Judaism has a powerful, appealing, and sophisticated message for world Jewry—and for humanity at large. Basing ourselves on the divinely revealed Bible, the authoritative halakhic system, and a worldview rooted in compassion and justice, we have succeeded as a world religion for over 3,000 years. We have weathered physical and spiritual attacks from external enemies; and we have been victorious in sectarian battles within Judaism itself.

Even as I contemplate the evolving role of women’s Torah study in Jewish communal life, I never forget that what brought me to this work – and what keeps me there – is not the new, but the ancient and eternal.  I am here because I love Torah and I love teaching it.

Albert Memmi, a Tunisian-born Jew, became a prominent French intellectual, writing and teaching about anti-Semitism, Colonialism, and racism. He died May 22, 2020, at the age of 99. He suffered greatly as a Jew, and never made peace with his Jewishness. But perhaps his very alienation as a Jew allowed him to understand the predicament of oppressed people everywhere.

During this period of the "three weeks" between 17 Tammuz and 9 Av, it is customary to focus on various Biblical and Talmudic texts relating to the destruction of our Temples in ancient Jerusalem. We are posting Rabbi Hayyim Angel's discussion of the book of Jeremiah, a prophet contemporary with the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

As we approach the fasts of 17 Tammuz and 9 Av, it is important for pregnant women to be aware of their exemption from fasting when this endangers the health of mother and unborn baby. Rabbi Moshe Zuriel reviews the laws of fasting as relates to pregnant women.

Grace Aguilar (1816-1847) was concerned that the wave of modernism was undermining the foundations of traditional religious life. Jews were seeking success in the secular world; the bond of religion was weakening. She was particularly aware of the spiritual crisis among youth, and she was a strong voice for women's spiritual development.

There were two responses to the destruction of the Second Temple.  One was to try to recover what was lost by force.  That failed completely.  The other was to create something new.  That succeeded so well that the Jewish people far outlasted the Roman Empire.