Jewish Holidays

Our independence day is a happy day, but is it a holy day? We established a state but why do we see it as a day of some special spirtual event?

Though the Hebrew calendar date of Israel Independence Day was decided upon by the Israeli government a year after the establishment of the State, their choice of day - the 5th of the Hebrew month of Iyar - received a divine stamp of approval in that this very day filled the missing link in a Rabbinic puzzle of centuries.

Rav Tzvi Yehuda Hakohen Kook, saw the terrible destruction of the Shoah in the context of the great construction of the Redemption. While the Exile was being all but destroyed, he Nation of Israel was being built up in its homeland.

Israel is a roller-coaster, a thrill ride; We are currently in the "sandwich," in the segment between the twin triumphs of our glorious redemption from Egypt, and "Exodus 1948," when we re-established ourselves as a sovereign country.

Two ideas permeate our nightly enumeration: 1) The linking up of Pesach & Shavuot & 2) The semi-mourning practices associated with this time of the year, due to the deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva. Is there a connection?

Every Jew thinks that he/she knows why we eat Matzot during Pesach. The enclosed article will shatter most people’s beliefs and thinking…

[There is a] very profound story [that] alludes to a unique aspect of Shivi'i shel Pesah - an aspect that is central and fundamental to the entire process of the Final Redemption. Is concerns the Chabad tradition that the Besht instituted an afternoon meal on this last of Passover, known as the Seudat Mashiah [Feast of the Messiah]...