Religion

Shavuot: always receiving

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

The year was 1935, and the Spanish government was making elaborate plans to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the Rambam’s birth, seemingly a great honour and proud moment for Jews everywhere.
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The power of shaping people’s sense of self

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

Shavuot, 49 days after Passover, marks the jubilant end to the exodus. On Passover, the people of Israel left Egypt, but it is only on Shavuot that they become G-d’s chosen people by accepting the Torah at Sinai.
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The precious tradition of all night Torah study

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

I recall my sense of excitement the first time I was allowed to come to shul with my father on Shavuot for the all-night Torah vigil. I felt so big!
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The diamond with 70 facets

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

Shavuot celebrates zman matan torateinu – the time of the giving of the Torah. From time to time, I am asked if progressive Jews have a different Sefer Torah to orthodox Jews. At first, the question just bowls me over. Open the ark in any shul, orthodox or progressive, and you will find the identical scrolls with the identical scribal texts so sacred to our people. But I get the question behind the question: if we have the same Torah, how is it possible that we often differ in the way we read it?
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Shavuot: seeing the face of G-d

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

The Jewish festival of Shavuot – the Feast of Weeks – celebrates the encounter between G-d and the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. As described in the Biblical book of Exodus, the newly freed children of Israel receive the Ten Commandments, establish a covenant with G-d, and become a holy nation – a distinctive, set-apart people, committed to live as a model of justice and righteousness.
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Winning Shavuot competition recipes

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

Jews love food, but not all of us love cooking. However, whether you are a budding chef or not, there is nothing better than a recipe that always gets rave reviews. KosherWorld called on the community to participate in a Shavuot Cooking Competition and the response was overwhelming.
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For lactose intolerant Jews, Shavuot is a challenge

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

(JTA) Many modern-day Jews aren’t all that familiar with Shavuot, which celebrates the day when the Israelites first received the Torah from G-d, and falls seven weeks after Passover marked their exodus from Egypt.
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Mystery of the milchik festival

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

When you ask a Jewish six-year old what their favourite festival is, you will probably get the answer that it’s Purim. It’s definitely the most fun – dressing up, giving, and receiving gifts, making noise when you hear Haman’s name.
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How Shavuot came to be associated with cheesecake

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

When Jews think of Shavuot, cheesecake is almost as obvious an association as learning through the night. Shavuot is simply not the same without cheesecake. But how did this decadent dessert become a Jewish holiday tradition?
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A commanding voice

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

And, Charlton Heston came down from Mount Sinai and gave us the Torah. Oops! Sorry, make that Moses. And, he was carrying the tablets with the Ten Commandments. The big 10, read in shuls around the world this coming Sunday morning for Shavuot, appear in the Book of Exodus, and are repeated in Deuteronomy as part of Moses’ review of the past 40 years.
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Jubilee addresses contentious land issue

May 30, 2019 Go comment!

The book of Leviticus, which we have just finished reading, reviews a sequence of ordinances and sacred rituals. Toward its end, we are presented with two sets of regulations defining the shemita (seventh year) and the yovel, the jubilee or 50th anniversary.
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Shemitah feeds the doubters in all of us

May 23, 2019 Go comment!

The parsha of the week, Behar, tells us that we shouldn’t work the land of Israel in the seventh year (Shemitah) or harvest its produce. The parsha continues that nonetheless, G-d promises us that there will be plenty to eat. If we ask, “What will we eat in the 7th year?” G-d promises us that He will command His blessing for us in the sixth year, and it will yield enough for three years.
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Why is there no Egged tour to the Garden of Eden?

May 16, 2019 Go comment!

I have climbed Mount Sinai. Although the exact location of Mount Sinai is unknown to archaeologists, I was fortunate enough to have toured with the real experts, the Egged bus company, and it knows exactly where it is.
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Being holy is about being separate

May 09, 2019 Go comment!

Every day, twice a day, we emulate the angels on high and say kedusha (a prayer describing G-d’s holiness). We exclaim that Hashem is “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh – holy, holy, holy” – powerful stuff, but what does holiness mean?
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Moral is normal

May 02, 2019 Go comment!

If anyone was bent on convincing us that Torah was old-fashioned, this would be a good Parsha to prove it. Leviticus, Chapter 18, contains the Bible’s Immorality Act. Our moral code, the forbidden relationships, who may marry whom and who may not – all come from this week’s reading.
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Pesach brings post-fire learnings to Morasha community

Apr 18, 2019 Go comment!

The story goes that in a small town, some shrubbery in the garden caught alight from a discarded cigarette. The rabbi quickly called the fire department, but the fire chief asked incredulously, “Rabbi, let me get this right, there is a burning bush on the shul property, and you want me to put it out?”
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Pesach – a time to take flight

Apr 18, 2019 Go comment!

As Pesach approaches, I am drawn to the verse that describes how G-d took us out of Egypt “on the wings of eagles” (Exodus 19:4). Each year, we are told to relive the experience of leaving Egypt, and I imagine being lifted from slavery and oppression “on the wings of eagles”. What better way could there be to express our transition from the earthly bonds that constrain us to the spiritual transcendence that G-d gave us than through the exhilarating, soaring rush of the eagle’s flight.
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Teach your children well for a better life

Apr 18, 2019 Go comment!

What creates freedom? A revolution in the streets? Mass protests? Civil war? A change of government? The ousting of the old guard and its replacement by the new? History, more often than not, shows us that the hopes raised by such events are often dashed sooner rather than later.
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Finding freedom

Apr 18, 2019 Go comment!

“Free at last, free at last, thank G-d Almighty, we are free at last!” Who said these words? No, it wasn’t Moses. It was American civil-rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King. But it could have been Moses, or for that matter any one of the millions of Jews who were liberated from Egyptian bondage.
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A time to redeem the splits in our community

Apr 18, 2019 Go comment!

We are about to gather with friends, family, and community to celebrate the Jewish festival of freedom. We will sit around our seder tables, grandparents and children, believers and sceptics, and together, we will tell the story of Passover.
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