What is a tallit? The tallit (also pronounced tallis, or talet) is a prayer shawl, the most authentic Jewish garment. It is a rectangular-shaped piece of linen or wool (and sometimes, now, polyester or silk) with special fringes called Tzitzit on each of the four corners. The purpose of the garment is to hold the Tzitzit. Most tallitot (alternative plural: talleisim) have a neckband, called an Atarah, which most often has the blessing one recites when donning the tallit, embroidered across it. Why wear a tallit? The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the Lord and observe them, so that you do [...]
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On this, the 53rd anniversary of Israel’s independence, it is all too tempting for friend and foe alike to define Israel, and Zionism, solely by the Arab world’s bloody hostility. To do so is to miss the normal miracles that occur in Israel daily, the millions who are able to live and learn, laugh and play, in the Middle East’s on ...
Haazinu, Ha’azinu, or Ha’Azinu (הַאֲזִינוּ — Hebrew for "listen" when directed to more than one person, the first word in the parshah) is the 53rd weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the 10th in the book of Deuteronomy. ...
This week’s parashah, Emor, is known as Torat Cohanim, the teaching for / of the Cohanim. Whereas the previous sections of the Torah focused on the holiness code for all the people, this section reads as a manual for the priests, instructing them on attaining holiness through their own set of symbolic obligations, duties, and maintenance. In ...
ראש חודש אייר Rosh Chodesh is the two day period in the diaspora, (one day in Israel) welcoming the new month as the new moon appears. The Torah refers to it as the second month when counting from the month of Nissan. In Melachim 1(Kings 1) 6:1 Ziv’s connotation is radian ...
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