Haym Salomon (1740-1785) was a patriot with close ties to George Washington. He is widely remembered for his financial activities in support of the American Revolution, and as the primary financier of the Continental Congress....
I spent my freshman year at Hobart College in Geneva, New York. There I studied French literature with the eminent Professor Eugene Murphy. He introduced our class to “
This week’s Torah Reading, Parshat Naso, discusses the vow of the Nazirite at some length. An Israelite man or woman may elect to undertake a temporarily heightened state of personal consecration through a vow of...
The Book of Ruth, read on Shavuot, tells of a young Moabite widow and her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi. Though Naomi – returning to the Land of Israel – urges Ruth to leave her and build...
President Harry Truman said: “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.” Fittingly, Truman’s observation was itself less than original. He was paraphrasing Kohelet (“There is nothing new under the...
Questions – especially the Four Questions – take center stage at our Passover celebrations. It is, however, Pesach Sheini – “The Second Passover,” observed today – which owes its very existence to a question.
Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel Wisser was born five days after Purim 1809 and died on Rosh Hashanah 1879. He is known as Malbim – an acronym of his Hebrew name – and used...
American folk-singer Bill Raines (1936-2021) wrote and performed “A Place in the Choir.” The song’s refrain declares that “All God’s critters got a place in the choir / Some sing low and some sing higher….”
The day following each of the Pilgrimage Festivals – Pesach, Shavuot, and Succot – is referred to as “Isru Chag.” That term is taken from Psalms 118:25 – “Bind (Isru) the festival offering (Chag) to...
Passover is unique among the three Pilgrimage Festivals. The Torah explicitly mandates joy on Succot in Deuteronomy 16:14-15. “You shall rejoice in your festival… You shall have nothing but joy.” In the same chapter, the...
