Jewish Holidays

After his first Shabbos ends with an unspeakable tragedy, Shimon Ilan’s resilience & faith paves the way for an unexpected friendship and inspires Yaakov Shwekey’s latest hit song Ein Davar Ra.

Why don’t we just make one bracha at the beginning of the count, on the first night, & then say a closing bracha on the last night? Why are there 49 separate brachot recited?!

What did The Rebbe of Lubavitch say to the soldiers who were injured in their duty in the IDF? And what is the right attitude towards this day?

Pesach is over - but we have permanently absorbed yet another portion of freedom. Yet another peel of Exile has been removed from us. We have shed yet another layer of self-nullification before others, and of blind admiration of customs found in the nations of the West or the Far East. We have grown stronger in getting to know ourselves, in healthy self-confidence, and in appreciation of the value of the People of Israel and its great destiny to shine the light of G-d throughout the world

The question in the headline is not one that is simply "asked;" it is rather cried out in pain! Unlike many questions that do not have an intellectual answer – such as, "Where was G-d when a baby died yesterday? Where was He during a variety of catastrophes that have occurred throughout history, some even worse than the Holocaust?" – it is specifically the Shoah that continually ignites anew the "Where was G-d?" debate. Delving deeper, we note that the reason for this actually directs us towards a more profound issue. Our question is actually a cry of despair that the Shoah appears to justify. For the Holocaust did not sprout up in a vacuum

According to Ben Zoma – whose ruling we accept, in that we mention the Exodus every night when we say Kriyat Sh'ma – we will not speak of the Exodus at all during the times of the Messiah. And even according to the Sages, though it will be mentioned, it will be clearly secondary. This raises a strong question: Did the Haggadah include this dispute simply in order to detract from the importance of the Exodus after the Mashiach comes?! We are all seated around the festive Seder table - is that the time to minimize the importance of out miraculous departure from Egypt?! The answer is that the opposite is true...