Most of our religious observances are indoors--in our homes, in our synagogues. We generally do not like to create a public spectacle of our religious experiences, but we behave modestly and try not to call attention to ourselves as we perform mitzvoth. There are some exceptions to this. On Hanukkah, it is a particular mitzvah to publicize the miracle by placing our hanukkiyot where they can be seen by the passers-by. Sukkoth also has some aspects of taking our religious obse

Books on the Jewish view of death and afterlife tend to arrive in one of two registers: pastoral comfort or academic survey. Rabbi Michael Beyo's Choose Life belongs to neither. It is an argument — sustained, sharply constructed, and unfashionably confident — that the Torah's command in Deuteronomy 30:19, uvacharta bachayim, "choose life," is not a platitude but the organizing principle of an entire civilization's four-thousand-year dissent from the rest of human history. Bey

Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai z"L As we experienced the awesome day of Yom HaKippurim, we find ourselves living through a moment in which the very idea of Jewish national return has become the subject of intense debate. Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are increasingly intertwined in the public discourse, while Jews themselves are once again asking fundamental questions about Jewish identity, peoplehood, sovereignty, and the meaning of the Land of Israel. At such a moment, understanding

An artistic rendering of Don Isaac Abravanel August 1492. An armada of sorts anchors in the port of Naples. Nine Spanish caravels of the same class that will soon carry Columbus to the New World. However, these ships are laden with adventurers of another kind: a thousand Sephardic refugees, packed up like sardines in a can. A sympathetic onlooker watches them disembark. “They were like wraiths,” he will recall. “resembling corpses in all but the power of motion.”[1] Their I

A photo of a young Rhodian Jewish boy of the Angel family, wearing the Star of David on the lapel of his coat. The Nazi menace decimated European Jewry, and its tentacles of hatred and violence reached even to North Africa and the Middle East. Jews of all backgrounds were victimized, and many stories about murdered family members remain as the heritage of Jews throughout the world. In our family-whose roots were in the Sephardic community of the Island of Rhodes-we also have

The Passover Haggadah presents a dramatic format for dealing with questions relating to religious observance. It presents four children, representing different attitudes toward Jewish belief and ritual, along with the framework for how to answer each of the questioners. The "rasha" (wicked child) is antagonistic to Jewish tradition. He/she does not feel part of it, and asks: what's the point of all this ritual? Why do you do these things? The Haggadah realizes that there is l

“Hatanu lefanekha rakhem ‘allenu – We have sinned before You, have mercy on us.”This refrain, familiar to anyone who has recited the...

Eleanor Roosevelt once noted: “Do not hesitate to do what you think you cannot do. Dare to reach beyond your perceived limits. Do not let...

Elias Canetti, a Sephardic Jew who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981, offers some interesting observations about Jews in his...

Early in the Agada, we read of the gathering in B’nei B’rak of Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Akiva and...

An artistic rendering of Don Isaac Abravanel Don Isaac Abravanel (b. 1437; d. 1508) is remembered as a great rabbi and commentator among...

Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, the first Sephardic Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, learning with young students in Jerusalem A quick...

Rabbi Dr. David de Sola Pool z"L Rabbi Dr. David de Sola Pool was the pre-eminent Sephardic Rabbi in America during the mid-twentieth...

Paul Gaugin, the famous 19th century French artist, commented: “When I want to see clearly, I shut my eyes.” He was referring to two...

Some years ago, I served as scholar-in-residence on a trip to Spain and Israel sponsored by the American Friends of the Technion. The...

Felisitationes - Mazal Tov to the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Los Angeles on the dedication of a new Sefer Torah! The community...

One of the great rabbinic lights of the twentieth century was Rabbi Benzion Meir Hai Uziel (1880–1953). Born in Jerusalem, he served as...

Esther the Jewess marries King Ahashverosh. Her Uncle Mordecai tells her not to reveal that she is Jewish. The Jews throughout the 127...

One of the great rabbinic lights of the twentieth century was Rabbi Benzion Meir Hai Uziel (1880–1953). Born in Jerusalem, he served as...

The root of deepest human sadness is embodied in the word "separation." We feel this sadness especially at moments of transition: when we...