Have you ever heard of Yehudit (Judith), the daughter of Yochanan the High Priest, who saved her city, Bethulia, from destruction at the hands of the Syrian-Greek general Holofernes?As the Jews in the town neared starvation due to the enemy siege, Yehu…

The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year for couples. Visions of holding your date as the snow falls perfectly onto your hair (that is somehow not a frizzy mess), cups of hot cocoa with marshmallows, kissing under twinkling lights, ice skating…yeah, those are nice movie-magic moments. But let’s get real; dating in December can seriously suck.

While a large number of Jews today light Chanukah candles, the more traditional custom is to light the Chanukah menorah with olive oil. This is done in order to most accurately recreate the original miracle.When God instructed Moses on the construction…

Chanukah celebrates the relighting of the menorah by the Maccabees. But the menorah that the Maccabees lit was actually the great seven-branched candelabra of the Temple, and not a nine-branched candelabra - one with eight lights for Chanukah and …

This year to commemorate Hanukkah, I am breaking out of my usual latke habit and shaking things up a bit with savory and sweet fritters. Fritters are defined as a wide variety of fried foods, usually consisting of a portion of batter or breading which has been filled with bits of meat, seafood, fruit, or other ingredients. Sounds good right?

United States Senator Joseph Lieberman, Billboard Top 10 Artist Alex Clare, and best-selling author Faye Kellerman are among those being honored as “All Stars” within the Orthodox Jewish community in a new video hitting the web this week. Read on to see who made the top 10 list of “Orthodox Jewish All Stars!”

What does Noah’s son Yephet have to do with the story of Chanukah and the mitzvah of circumcision?When the Syrian-Greeks sought to force Hellenization on the Judeans, one of the first mitzvot they outlawed was brit milah, circumcision. In f…

“Rock of Ages let our song / Praise thy saving power / Thou amidst the raging foes / Wast our sheltering tower….” This is the first verse of Maoz Tzur as translated, loosely from the original Hebrew, by Marcus Jastrow and Gustav Gotthei…

It is not uncommon to find that significant events in Jewish history occurred in different years but on the same day on the Jewish calendar. For instance, Tisha B’Av (9th of Av), the day on which we mark the destruction of both the First and Second Temple, occurred on the same calendar day on which the Israelites in the wilderness listened to the spies and cried out in fear that God was leading them to their deaths. This resulted in 38 additional years of wandering in the wilderness before the next generation was allowed to enter the Promised Land.

The Jewish people have said this prayer daily for thousands of years. On the first night of Chanukah, one candle/light is placed on the far right of the menorah. Each succeeding night, one candle/light is added to the left of the previous night’s candle(s)/light(s). The newest candle/light is always lit first.