Category: Holidays
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Acts of Ahavat Chinam—Baseless Love
Today is Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, the head of the new month of Tammuz. As Tammuz enters, many in the Jewish community begin turning our hearts and souls to the Three Weeks—ben HaMetzarim—the time of profound national mourning for the Jewish people, culminating on the 9th of Av with a full…
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Receiving Torah on Shavuot—What and How
Introduction: Shavuot is the second of the three major pilgrimage festivals. Originally a harvest festival, it was the time when our ancestors would aliyah l’regel—literally “go up on foot”—to make an offering of their first fruits in the Temple in Jerusalem. After the Temple’s destruction, when bringing first fruits was…