Sukkot is a weeklong Jewish holiday that comes five days after Yom Kippur. Sukkot celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection G‑d provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. We celebrate Sukkot by dwelling in a foliage-covered booth (known as a sukkah) and by taking the “Four Kinds” (arba minim), four special species of vegetation. Sukkot also means “booths” or “huts” in…
Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement.” It is the holiest and most solemn day of the Jewish year and is a fast day. According to tradition, at the end of Yom Kippur, God “seals” our fates for the coming year (i.e., whether we will be inscribed in the Book of Life). The main themes of this day are sin, repentance…
Felonious Monk is celebrating Tu Bishvat with a (daydream) hike in the Holyland! He is resting against an olive tree that is hundreds of years old. He reflects on how peaceful it is here with an ancient symbol of peace (remember the dove and the olive branch from the story of Noah?). He says a quiet prayer asking peace for…
Felonious is looking forward to making new friends, but he is worried that he will be shunned when people find out that he was in prison. If people could only get to know him before making up their minds! They would see that he is truly sorry for his crime. He is not that guy anymore! Overcoming his fears of…
This is the first of many of Felonious Monk’s adventures #1 Prison inmates are very grateful to the volunteers who come to visit them. Every Institution has a volunteer appreciation event annually. One lovely feature of this event is an opportunity for each guest to pick a gift from tables of crafts and artwork that have been made by the…
Every 14th day of Adar on the Hebrew calendar Jewish people celebrate Purim. It’s a joyous holiday that marks the time the Persian Jewish population was saved from genocide. Okay, while Purim does have rather dark underpinnings, it really is supposed to be a fun celebration of survival full of wine, noisemakers and hamantaschen – the triangle cookie-like pastry with…
The Basic Purim StoryA Brief Retelling of the Book of Esther (Megillah) A Fateful Party It all began in Ancient Persia in the fourth century BCE. The Holy Temple that had stood in Jerusalem was destroyed more than 50 years earlier, and the Jews were subjects of the mighty Persian empire that extended over 127 lands. Three years after…
The Law of Return is an Israeli law, passed on 5 July 1950, which gives Jews the right to come and live in Israel and to gain Israeli citizenship. Section 1 of the Law of Return declares: “every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh [immigrant].” Wikipedia and become an Israeli citizen. For the purposes of…
Rosh HashanahThe Jewish New Year, the beginning of ten days of penitence or teshuvah culminating on Yom Kippur. Traditionally celebrated with sweet or round foods such as apples and honey, and the blowing of the shofar, a hollowed-out ram’s horn, during religious services. A customary greeting is shanah tovah or “happy new year!” Yom KippurThe Day of Atonement; a very solemn day devoted to fasting,…
The JCS Torah Scroll: Purim-Torah. What a Megillah When Adar comes in, joy increases. On Purim we engage in Purim-Torah: jokes and irreverent teachings that blur the differences between the sacred and the profane. The Jewish Chaplaincy Society has wanted a Torah Scroll of its own since its inception in 2002. Every once in a while, I would check out…