For book lovers in Israel, this week is simply the best, better than all the rest (Tina Turner soundtrack anyone?) It’s Shavua HaSefer HaIvri (Hebrew Book Week) with sales and events across the country. While, back in 1962, Koren started as an Israeli company that published classic Jewish texts exclusively in Hebrew, we’ve expanded throughout…
In Judaism, lengthy prayer services on the Yom Tovim can inspire reactions that range from uplifted to frustrated. The text, the additional services, the Torah and Haftarah readings come to bring us closer to the themes and significance of these special days, yet often seem foreign to many of us. To address this challenge, a…
(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…
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.
The following is adapted from Relics for the Present, a collection of inspiring mini-essays that explore the parameters and depths of prayer. In this two volume series, author Levi Cooper of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies uses Tractate Berakhot as the foundational text and combines rabbinical commentary and Hassidic lore to create inspiring vignettes…
By Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun When students in Religious-Zionist and Modern-Orthodox yeshivot study Talmud and Halakha, they do so in the same way, in the same language, and with the same tools that students have been studying those texts for hundreds of years. When they encounter students of ĥaredi yeshivot, they can discuss with them…
It’s no coincidence that our new blog begins with Bereishit. Amongst the many distinguished authors with whom we work, we have the privilege of publishing Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb’s new book, ‘The Person in the Parasha: Discovering the Human Element in the Weekly Torah Portion’. The Person in the Parasha comprises Rabbi Weinreb’s essays…