Check out our Haggadah for the Tu BiShvat Seder!
Tag: NEWS
Tu B’Shvat – the chag of the union between the past and the future
Tu BiShvat begins as the date when taxes, sacrifices and donations on everything that comes from trees are renewed. So we learn in Tractate Rosh Hashanah, in the Mishnah’s legislative code (written in Eretz Israel, in the 1st and 2nd centuries). There was no complex spiritual meaning, but a bureaucratic date. So we continued until the arrival of mysticism in Judaism.
Hanukkah 5782
If something has kept Jewish tradition alive for millennia, it is its ability to adapt to new contexts and respond to social changes, existential quests and vital processes based on ancestral texts that are reread and ancient practices resignified and recreated by the eyes and hands of every generation.
Diaspora Day 5782
News to celebrate Diaspora Day!
Simchat Torah 5782
Simchat Torah is the date that celebrates the ending of the annual Torah reading cycle, and its immediate restart. It’s the festival of certain repetition. Perhaps it’s even the festival of routine.
A hard problem – Sukkot 5782
Sukkot poses a hard problem for me. Torah commands me to gather my harvest, to bring it to the temple and present an offering of thanks for all the abundant fruits and crops I was able to produce this season, sharing them also with the Levites and the servants. My problem is simple: I am not a farmer! I don’t have fields, and I don’t harvest any produce; there are no Levites around me anymore, and fortunately there are no more people subjugated to me in servitude.
Conversely purposeful – Yom Kippur 5782
On Rosh Hashanah the tashlich ritual states: throw pieces of bread into running water in order to get rid of your transgressions. Although surrounded by spiritual meaning, a problem emerges from this act: the transfer of personal waste, even if symbolic, to a place in nature that belongs to everyone. In this sense, what would be the consequences if everyone tried to get rid of what bothers them, disregarding the collective concept so emphasized on Rosh Hashanah, when we remember the creation of the world?
Back to Adam – Rosh Hashanah 5782
Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of a new cycle. The festive moments invite us to engage in reflection and, from there, to rethink our daily practices. In Jewish thought, time is circular, not just in yearly cycles. Historical time is a process of improvement and reparation that fits between Paradise and Messianic Time, two mythical ideas of perfection, of absolute good.
From Mourning to Reflection – Tisha beAv 5781
Once the students invited their master, Ben Azzai (2nd century, Israel) to share a good teaching about “Megillat Kinot” (the Biblical Book of Lamentations/Eichah that is read every Tisha beAv).
Pride Month 2021
The Pride Month is coming to a close, but the celebration of diversity in our communities lasts all year! We’ve prepared some material to help you and your community to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ pride this month or in any other.