There is an oft-cited Midrash (Sifrei, Dvarim 343) describing how God offered the Torah to the other nations of the world before He gave it to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. According to this Midrash, the first nation to whom He offered the Tor…

On the first day of Sivan in the year 2448 (Jewish calendar), only seven weeks after leaving Egypt, the Israelites reached the Wilderness of Sinai. On the desert plain around the mountain, they set up camp and watched as Moses set off toward the mountain to hear God’s will.

Shavuot, which we begin celebrating Tuesday night (May 14th), is the only holiday in the Torah not listed by the date on which it is to be observed. Rather, the Torah teaches that this festival takes place on the day following the 49th day after the fi…

Jewish law, and thus Jewish life, rests on two pillars, the mitzvot between a person and God and the mitzvot between one person and another. These two pillars of law are laid out in the Ten Commandments.According to the sages, the first five commandmen…

The Western (Wailing*) Wall is the holiest location in Jewish life. With 28 rows of massive stones above ground (and 17 below), the wall itself is physically breathtaking.

In 1947, when the United Nations approved the plan to partition the British Mandate of Palestine (Israel) into a Jewish state and an Arab state, they determined that Jerusalem would be an “international city” for a period of ten years. The plan was…

In the past, it was common for people to learn a trade by serving as an apprentice.

Raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Judah P. Benjamin (1811, St. Croix – 1884, Paris) was 14 years old when he left home to attend Yale Law School.

A cup of sugar, a couple of eggs or a few onions. These are the types of items that neighbors often lend to one another without a second thought.

Some people say that the difference between a human and an animal is the power of speech, others say it is consciousness, and, of course, others say that there are no differences.