The Koren Publishers’ Newsletter is excited to announce a new monthly feature; Staff Picks. Every month a different member of our team will tell us about some of their favorite titles or give their recommendations for books that you may have missed, but certainly deserve your attention. Meet the people who make the books you…
UPDATE: Mavericks, Mystics, and False Messiahs by Rabbi Pini Dunner has been named a Finalist for a 2018 National Jewish Book Award! Mazal tov Rabbi Dunner! An 18th century eccentric, social justice minded, British nobleman AND a righteous convert to Judaism… that is the description of Lord George Gordon otherwise known as Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon.…
This week, on November 6th – the 29th of Heshvan – the Ethiopian Jewish community (called Beta Israel) will celebrate a holiday called Sigd. The holiday, meaning “prostration”, has been celebrated for generations. On this day, the community ascends a high mountain (a symbol of Mt. Sinai) and gathers as the priest (the kes) reads…
(This essay appears in Seder Talk: The Conversational Haggada by Dr. Erica Brown.) On the night of the Seder, everyone is a king. Everyone is a free person. Thus, everyone is entitled to experience freedom deeply. For the poor, the problem standing between himself and the re-enactment of freedom this night is only what money…
The following is taken from our newest Passover Haggada: Redemption, Then and Now by the prolific Rabbi Benjamin Blech. What is it about the Jews that makes us so special? Scholars have long wondered why Jews who number less than one-quarter of 1% of the world – as Milton Himmelfarb memorably put it, “The total…
What Makes a Jewish Song Jewish? Note: One of the most powerful aspects of Rabbi Lamm’s Derashot LeDorot series is when readers realize how his message for each parasha, given when he was a synagogue rabbi in the ’50s and ’60s, are still so incredibly relevant today. This piece, for example, was taken from notes…
You can tell a lot about a person’s interests by what they read. One may be learning a particular tractate in school or in a Daf Yomi group. Another may be seeking new ideas to share at the Shabbat table. A parent may be looking to inspire their children as they learn tefilla, while he…
The Torah reading this Shabbat, Parashat Hayyei Sarah, details Abraham’s purchase of Ma’arat HaMachpela (the Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron. In light of the political climate regarding jurisdiction over Hebron, it is worthwhile to read Rabbi Shlomo Goren’s firsthand account of the battle to reclaim Hebron and the Arabs’ surrender to the Israel Defense Forces.