The Forgotten Hostage: Purim
The post The Forgotten Hostage: Purim appeared first on Aish.com. Go to Aish Date: March 12, 2025
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Channeling Our Divine Gifts
In 2015, my closest friend from college – a brilliant chemist who’d been published in scientific journals and recruited straight from graduation to a prestigious position at the CDC – became an observant Jew almost overnight. His scientific mind had always matched his spiritual curiosity, but this dramatic shift in his life’s direction caught me…
One Person Can Change the World
In 1951, a 14-year-old Australian boy named James Harrison had major surgery to save his life, the removal of one of his lungs. He was alive, thanks in large part to a vast quantity of transfused blood he had received. He was hospitalized for three months but when he came out, he was determined to…
Laughter and Absurdity: The Jewish People’s Improbable, Absurd and Eternal Existence
According to ancient Kabbalistic sources, every month of the Jewish calendar is associated with a different aspect of the human experience. The month of Adar, in which the festival of Purim falls, is associated with laughter. What is the deeper significance of laughter and how does it reveal the essence of Purim? Aristotle and the…
Mothers of the Hostages: 3 Purim Lessons
Drama, intrigue, tragedy, triumph. The Purim story has it all. But it’s not just ancient history. Purim reminds us that there were many instances throughout Jewish history that the Jewish people faced difficult and frightening trials, and Jewish heroes and heroines rose above their personal circumstances and lifted us up as a nation. Queen Esther…
Christian Dress on Purim
I have an outfit which would be perfect for dressing up as a nun on Purim, but I feel funny going to synagogue on Purim dressed as a nun! Is there any problem in Jewish law with it? The post Christian Dress on Purim appeared first on Aish.com. Go to Aish Date: March 9, 2025
Ki Tisa 5785: Purim: An Ancient Holiday with a Modern Message
GOOD MORNING! As we’ve discussed, we are now in the Hebrew month of Adar, a month associated with joy. It is also the month in which the miracle of Purim occurred (some 2,500 years ago) when the Jewish people were saved from annihilation at the hands of the wicked Haman – a descendant of the…
Light Up Your Life
The post Light Up Your Life appeared first on Aish.com. Go to Aish Date: March 9, 2025
The Psychology of Idol Worship
Let me offer you an irresistible deal: trade your spiritual perfection to bow down to a golden cow. Any takers? Anyone reading this week’s Torah portion confronts this seemingly absurd proposition. What drove our ancestors to worship a golden calf? How could they abandon the pinnacle of divine connection at Sinai for a lifeless idol?…
Look Deeper
In this week’s Torah portion, we find a striking exchange between Moshe and Yehoshua when Moshe returns from his forty days on mountain to the Jewish people. As he descends from the mountain, Yehoshua, who had waited below, hears the sounds emanating from the camp and exclaims: “There is the sound of war in the…