Eating gluten free does not have to mean missing your favorite desserts! Here are 14 delicious and kosher gluten free dessert recipes to try. Many are great for Passover and those that are not pareve can be made dairy-free by substituting vegan alternatives to things like butter, milk or chocolate chips.

Apple Kugel (Pareve): Perfect for Rosh Hashanah or any time you’re craving apples.

Lace Cookies with Nutella (Kosher for Passover): These delicate, flourless cookies are so good you will make them all year.

Rugelach: Traditional, tender, flaky and utterly delicious.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake (Kosher for Passover): Cheesecake, ganache and macaroons inspire this cake that is really three desserts in one!

Honey Apple Cake (Pareve): This dairy-free cake is perfect Rosh Hashanah and delicious year round.

Churros: Try making this fried treat part of your Hanukkah celebration.

Moroccan Apricot Cake (Kosher for Passover, Pareve): Enjoy the flavors of almond, orange blossom and citrus.

Tahini Halva Brownies: Fudgy, rich and tasty.

Chocolate Babka: Sweet, gooey and indulgent.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake: Enjoy this delicious cake with your afternoon coffee, no gluten required.

Almond Cake with Strawberry Compote (Kosher for Passover, Pareve): A tasty cake full of flavor.

No-Bake Strawberry Coconut Pie (Kosher for Passover, Pareve): A creamy, vegan pie you will enjoy eating all year.

Chocolate Quinoa Cake (Kosher for Passover, Pareve): A moist and delicious chocolate cake that is dairy-free, gluten-free and Passover friendly.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Almond Crust (Kosher for Passover): The perfect spring treat.

The post Gluten Free Kosher Desserts appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

He was one of five chief disciples of the great Rabbi Akiva credited with carrying on the teaching of Torah after the mass deaths of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students. Rabbi Shimon is also reputed to be the author of the Zohar, the central work of Jewish mysticism that appeared on the scene roughly 1,000 years after his death. Modern scholars generally believe the work was authored by the Spanish kabbalist Moses de Leon, who merely attributed the secret knowledge contained in the work to a tradition tracing back to Rabbi Shimon. 

Perhaps the best-known story of Rabbi Shimon is that he lived in a cave in northern Israel for 13 years after being sentenced to death by the Romans. The story is recorded in Tractate Shabbat, which describes his response to another sage who celebrated the Romans, the sovereign empire in ancient Israel, for building markets, bridges and bathhouses. Rabbi Shimon replied that they did these things out of self-interest. “Everything that they established, they established only for their own purposes,” he says in the talmudic account. “They established marketplaces to place prostitutes in them, bathhouses to pamper themselves, bridges to collect taxes from all who pass over them.”

When the authorities heard of this, Rabbi Shimon was sentenced to death. For a time, he and his son, Rabbi Elazar, took refuge in the study hall. But eventually, they fled to a cave, where a miracle occurred and a carob tree and spring water appeared to sustain them. After 12 years in the cave, Elijah the prophet appeared to inform them that the Roman emperor had died and Rabbi Shimon was no longer in danger. But after emerging from the cave, Rabbi Shimon was outraged to see people working instead of dedicating themselves entirely to Torah study. His anger was so great, that everything he looked at was burned. 

A divine voice then rang out and instructed Rabbi Shimon and his son to return to the cave. They emerged after another year, at which time the Talmud reports: “Everywhere that Rabbi Elazar would strike, Rabbi Shimon would heal.” Only after they encountered an elderly man rushing home before Shabbat with two myrtle branches in hand — one, he explained, to fulfill the mitzvah of remembering Shabbat, and the other to fulfill the mitzvah of observing Shabbat — were their minds completely at ease. 

Many of the statements attributed to Rabbi Shimon are concerned with ethical matters or esoteric interpretations of biblical verses. According to Rabbi Shimon, it’s better to serve a Torah scholar than study Torah (Berakhot 7b), and it’s better for a person to jump into a furnace than embarrass another person in public (Bava Metzia 59a). Rabbi Shimon says a woman is required to bring an offering after childbirth because while she’s in the throes of birth pangs, she likely made a false oath swearing never to have sex with her husband again (Niddah 31b). 

Rabbi Shimon is reputed to have died on Lag Ba’omer, the 33rd day after Passover, and buried in a tomb in Meron, in northern Israel. For centuries, the site has been one of the largest Jewish pilgrimages, drawing hundreds of thousands of celebrants on Lag Ba’omer who dance and sing at Rabbi Shimon’s grave. Among the customs are the lighting of large bonfires and the giving of first hair cuts to three-year-old boys, a ritual known as upsheren.

The post Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Origin of Second Passover

In ancient times, Passover was the most significant festival for the Israelites. The celebration looked very different from a modern Passover seder. Jews would travel from near and far to be together in Jerusalem on the 14th of Nisan where they would sacrifice a lamb or goat at the Temple. After sundown, they would take the animal back to their encampments and roast it, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs as the Torah prescribed. 

Coordinating an entire nation to enter a state of purity (which was required to enter the Temple and make a sacrifice) and come to Jerusalem all on the same day was no mean feat. In fact, it was virtually impossible. But Passover was so important that the Torah made a provision for those who were not able to make the sacrifice on the 14th of Nisan: They could make it up one month later, on the 14th of Iyyar. The provision is laid out in Numbers 9, where Moses is approached by several Israelites who are impure through contact with a corpse and unable to become pure again before the 14th of Nisan:

There were some men who were unclean by reason of a corpse and could not offer the passover sacrifice on that day. Appearing that same day before Moses and Aaron, those men said to them, “Unclean though we are by reason of a corpse, why must we be debarred from presenting the Lord’s offering at its set time with the rest of the Israelites?” Moses said to them, “Stand by, and let me hear what instructions the Lord gives about you.” And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to the Israelite people, saying: When any of you or of your posterity who are defiled by a corpse or are on a long journey would offer a passover sacrifice to the Lord, they shall offer it in the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and they shall not leave any of it over until morning. They shall not break a bone of it. They shall offer it in strict accord with the law of the passover sacrifice.”

Numbers 9:6–12

The passage in Numbers is of interest not only because it creates a make-up date for Passover, but also because it is one of only a few in which God amends divine law in response to a human concern. Another example, also found in the Book of Numbers, is when the five daughters of Zelophehad approach Moses because they wish to inherit their father’s estate. God changes divine law and allows daughters to inherit when there are no sons to do so.

Pesach Sheni Today

Today, celebrating Passover does not require one to travel to Jerusalem, though Jews do express a wish to be in Jerusalem next year at the end of every Passover seder). Nor does it require one to be pure since it does not involve a sacrifice. For that reason, Pesach Sheni is more of a curiosity than a religious occasion. However, Jews do acknowledge it in their daily prayers by omitting the Tachanun prayer, a confessional that is normally recited after the Amidah during both Shacharit (morning) and Minchah (afternoon) prayers. Some, particularly those influenced by Hasidic thought, find Pesach Sheni an inspiring reminder of the grace and possibilities offered by second chances.

The post What Is Second Passover (Pesach Sheni)? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Origin

In ancient times, the Omer marked the beginning of the barley harvest, and its conclusion coincided with the ripening of wheat. On both occasions, special grain offerings were brought in the ancient Temple — on Passover a barley offering, and on Shavuot loaves of bread from choice flour. The word omer literally refers to an ancient dry measure of grain. 

The Mishnah (Menachot chapter 10) describes the Omer sacrifice  made at the beginning of the 49-day count. After the sun set, three sheaves of barley were identified and harvested with great fanfare as crowds watched. These were placed in a basket and carried to the Temple where the barley was processed: The kernels were removed from the stalks and singed with a flame, then milled into a coarse flour and sifted 13 times before being mixed with oil and frankincense to make a dough. This dough was held aloft and waved, then a portion of it burned up on the altar and the rest was eaten by the priests. According to the Talmud, this waving  ritual was meant to prevent harmful winds from damaging the season’s grain crops (Menachot 62b).

Spiritual Significance

Beyond its agricultural significance, the Omer ritual serves as a daily reminder of the journey from liberation to revelation, mirroring the Israelites’ passage from slavery in Egypt to the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, which is celebrated on Shavuot. Some frame this as a journey from physical redemption to spiritual redemption.

Today, the Omer is a time of semi-mourning during which it is customary to avoid getting a haircut, celebrating a marriage, or listening to music. Various explanations have been offered for this practice, which seems to have emerged in medieval times. Perhaps the best-known is that, according to the Talmud (Yevamot 62b), the span between Passover and Shavuot was the period in which 24,000 students of the great sage Rabbi Akiva died because they did not treat each other with respect. In the medieval and modern periods, when violence against Jews increased around Easter and Passover, this practice of mourning was reinforced and the period became associated with remembering Jews who died in the Crusades, at the hands of the Cossacks and in ghetto uprisings against the Nazis.

Within Jewish mysticism, each week of the Omer corresponds to one of the seven lower sefirot, or divine emanations. Similarly, each day of the Omer also corresponds to one of the seven lower sefirot. This means each day represents a unique pair of divine emanations and its own spiritual significance and possibilities for character development.

Lag Ba’omer

The 33rd day of the Omer is called Lag Ba’omer. Mourning is paused on this day, according to traditional sources, because it was on this day that Rabbi Akiva’s students stopped dying. Many Jews take the opportunity of Lag Ba’omer to wed and cut their hair. In fact, this is a day on which some Jewish children traditionally receive their first haircut. Other traditions include bonfires and playing with bows and arrows.

In modern times, Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, falls on the 5th of Iyyar within the Omer. For Jews who consider Yom Ha’atzmaut a religious holiday, the mourning restrictions are lifted on this day.

How to Count the Omer

The Omer is traditionally counted at night, shortly after sundown (when the Jewish day begins). It is traditional to count the Omer right after reciting ma’ariv, the evening prayer service (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 489:1). The first day is counted at the second Passover seder. 

To count the Omer, first recite this blessing:

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha’Olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tizivanu al sefirat ha’omer.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to count the omer.

After the blessing is recited, the number of the day is announced in terms of weeks and additional days. For example:

Hayom sh’losha asar yom, she’hem shavuah echad v’shisha yamim la’omer (some say: ba’omer).

Today is 13 days, which is one week and six days of the omer.

Many Jews have Omer calendars that provide a visual representation of the count. This can look like anything from a traditional wall calendar to a string of colored beads. Over the centuries, communities have developed many creative and artistic variations.

For more guidance on counting the Omer, click here. 

The post The Omer appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Whether you’re hosting your first seder or looking to refresh a longstanding tradition, My Jewish Learning’s staff offers our recommendations for the perfect items to create a memorable and meaningful Passover gathering this year.

All of our recommendations are independently selected by My Jewish Learning’s editorial team. We may earn a commission if you buy something through one of our affiliate links.

Abby, Associate Editor

I enjoy using a different Haggadah each year, especially ones that can connect the Exodus story to other times in Jewish history. Originally written in Judeo-Arabic, the Hitler Haggadah chronicles the Exodus-like experience of Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian Jews during the Holocaust. 

In my home, any Jewish holiday is a perfectly valid excuse to buy beautiful new Judaica. Bring a touch of Central Europe to your seder with this dreamy Hungarian-style Kiddush cup + candle set or this porcelain seder plate, which comes with a dainty matching matzah stand.

Amy, Digital Marketing Manager

A Passover tradition in my house always includes our favorite chocolate “lollycones” for dessert. At a seder with kids, we always like to infuse a little fun and silliness with these jumping frogs.

Becky, VP of Audience & Digital Strategy

In the aftermath of last summer’s “Barbie” movie mania, I gifted several friends Midrash Manicures’ splendid Barbie-themed challah cover, and given what a hit it was, I know the Barbie-themed Afikomen bag will be equally beloved.

Bonus: My Jewish Learning readers can get 20% off all Midrash Manicures purchases with the code MJL20.

Ben, Managing Editor

When I was a kid, our Jewish day school always held a Passover candy sale as a fundraiser, and when flipping open the catalog of (insanely overpriced) sweets, I was invariably drawn to a rainbow of half-moon gelatinous sugar-coated “fruit” slices. I’m not sure I ever actually liked these, but I begged for them every year.

It’s a silly trope that every year, the number of Haggadahs proliferates, but it’s an accurate one. One of my favorites from recent years is the New American Haggadah, edited by Jonathan Safran Foer. And if you’re interested in the OG American Haggadah, Arthur Waskow’s classic Freedom Seder never goes out of style.

Rachel, Editor

Looking to feel more inspired this Passover? Check out the beautiful essays in Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sack’s Haggadah commentary.

I’m also a fan of these frog napkin rings as a cute way to make your table feel even more special for Passover.

Mara, Education & Partnership Manager

There’s no better way to begin Passover than with a new favorite pillow to take to the Seder table. I’m feeling floral this year:

Tea is more fun, and more on theme when it comes in a pyramid. These green teas also have a nice kick of caffeine to help you stay awake for the seder and to counteract the less-fun effects of matzah.

I’m always a bit sad when the seders are over. Whether you count the omer every year or are just learning about this practice now, this beautiful omer counter will help you enjoy this special part of the Jewish calendar.

Mira, Online Learning Coordinator

This year, I hope to make homemade matzah with my friends. We’re going to grind the wheatberries ourselves! One of my friends shared that in Iran, his family would make matzah at home…so this year I’m putting the DIY in dayenu.

Are you like me? Do you constantly wipe your hands on your pants without thinking? Get an apron for all of the Passover cooking you have to do this year!

Bonus Recommendation: The Kveller Haggadah

The Kveller Haggadah is for curious kids — and their grown-ups.

The Passover seder shouldn’t feel like a long to-do list — it’s an adventure!

Designed to guide families through an epic journey from slavery to freedom, we go deep into Jewish traditions in a kid-friendly way, yet we don’t overlook the dramatic tensions of the Passover story. Our friends at Kveller created the Kveller Haggadah to promote curiosity, even when there are no easy answers.

Don’t miss your chance to make this year’s seder meaningful, inspiring, and even a little bit weird.

The post 18 Items to Make This Passover Different From All Others appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

A large body of additional rules derive from these general ones. Many Ashkenazi Jews will additionally abstain from kitniyot, a category of foods that includes corn, rice, beans and lentils. A small minority of Jews will avoid “gebrochts” — matzah products that become wet, such as matzah balls or matzah meal. But for a general guide to the rules of keeping kosher on Passover, read on. 

Don’t Eat Bread (or Millet, Barley and More)

The core dietary rule on Passover is not to eat bread. But in reality, the kosher rules of Passover prohibit the fermented products of five grains: wheat, rye, spelt, barley and oats. Because fermentation can technically begin almost from the moment these grains come in contact with water, common practice is not to eat them at all over the holiday unless they have been made into matzah, which is baked using a procedure that ensures no fermentation. 

In addition, many Jews avoid processed food that is not explicitly labeled kosher for Passover because even products that are not hametz, like cheese or juice, may have been processed in a plant alongside products containing hametz. Products certified kosher for Passover become available in many groceries in the weeks leading up to Passover or can be ordered online. 

Finally, there are a number of products that, while not technically hametz, are still avoided on Passover by some Ashkenazi Jews for complex historical reasons. Foremost among these are kitniyot, a category often described as legumes, but which actually contains foods that are not legumes, like rice and corn. Sephardic Jews do not avoid kitniyot on Passover. 

Get Rid of Your Hametz

Besides not eating hametz, observant Jews will not possess it either. So in the days leading up to the holiday, an extensive cleaning process begins — not only in the kitchen, but anywhere traces of hametz may be found (like in the couch cushions or the pages of a book). Any hametz that is not found in this process is ritually declared ownerless on the eve of Passover. 

Additionally, many Jews will retain certain hametz products in the home over the holiday that would be too expensive or onerous to dispose of, like pricey liquors made from fermented grains. To deal with this issue, those items are typically stowed away somewhere they won’t be seen over the holiday and then sold to a non-Jewish person for the duration of Passover. In most communities, rabbis perform this task on behalf of the community at large, though it is possible to sell your hametz privately. 

Change Your Kitchen

Many Jews will also undertake the elaborate process of making their kitchens kosher for Passover. This can involve pouring boiling water on all kitchen surfaces or (depending on the material) covering them for the duration of the holiday. The Orthodox Union provides a free guide to this process here. Some also switch all their cooking equipment, flatware and dishware for the holiday, using disposable alternatives or special sets reserved solely for use on Passover. 

The post Kosher Rules for Passover appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

For these and other reasons, it is common practice to sell one’s hametz to a non-Jewish person for the duration of the Passover holiday. This transaction is typically completed early in the day prior to the holiday. Once the holiday is complete, the hametz is repurchased and is available for use. There are several ways to do this. 

Delegate It to a Rabbi

By far the most common approach to selling hametz is to delegate a rabbi to do it on your behalf. Most synagogue rabbis perform this service on behalf of their communities. Because there are some particularities about how Jewish law requires the sale to be done, most people find this not only the easiest method, but the most reliable. This typically entails nothing more than filling out a form assigning the power to sell one’s hametz to the rabbi, and normally details what type of hametz is involved and where it’s stored. 

Sell it Online

A number of synagogues and Jewish organizations offer the service of selling hametz, either for free or in exchange for a small fee or donation. In practice, this functions much like selling hametz through a rabbi: A form is filled out online delegating a particular rabbi as your agent, the location and type of hametz are spelled out, and the form and payment submitted. The Chabad hasidic movement and the chief rabbinate of Israel both provide this service over the internet, as do a number of independent synagogues. 

Sell it yourself

It isn’t particularly difficult, and many people actually find it more meaningful, to sell their hametz privately to a friend or neighbor. There are some specific Jewish legal requirements for a sale, so if these are important to you, it may be preferable to use one of the options above. But as long as the sale is real — meaning, money really changes hands and both parties understand the sale is not a legal fiction, but a genuine (if temporary) transfer of ownership — there’s no reason a private sale cannot also be legally valid. More guidance on how to do this is available here.

The post How to Sell Your Hametz For Passover appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Most of these, from the ant to the lion, are recognizable to this day. But there are some exceptional animals that have mythic proportions and special powers. You won’t encounter these animals in the wild or at the zoo. Here are seven mythical animals found in the Hebrew Bible:

1. Talking Snake (Genesis 3)

In the opening chapters of Genesis, God creates the world and places Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where they are instructed not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. But the serpent, who is able to speak and is characterized in the text as “wiley,” convinces Eve to ignore God’s warning and taste the forbidden fruit. She shares the fruit with Adam and both of them are expelled from paradise. But the serpent is also punished. God removes its legs and condemns it to spend the rest of its life crawling on its belly. There are many other serpents in the Hebrew Bible, from the ones that bite the Israelites in the desert to the ones formed from Moses and Aaron’s shape-shifting staffs, but as far as we know, this is the only snake that was ever able to speak.

2. Balaam’s Donkey (Numbers 22)

The only other animal in the Bible that is granted the power of speech is the donkey belonging to the non-Jewish prophet Balaam. In the Book of Numbers, the Moabite king Balak sees the many Israelites amassed in the desert and becomes afraid they will attack and overwhelm his people, so he sends the prophet Balaam to curse them. But Balaam warns Balak that he will be unable to curse the Israelites if God doesn’t want him to. Indeed, as Balaam rides off to curse the people, God places a fiery angel to block the path. Balaam’s donkey is able to see the angel, but Balaam can’t, so he urges her forward to no avail. When she finally lies down in the middle of the road, he curses and beats her, at which point God “opens” her mouth: “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?” The donkey then points out to Balaam that she has always served him well, and once this has been established he is finally able to see the angel. Not only can this donkey talk, she is more wise and perceptive than her prophetic master.

3. Behemoth (Job 40)

The Behemoth is a primeval chaos monster mentioned in the biblical Book of Job. In a speech delivered to Job at the end of the book, God explains that creating the world involved taming this oversized monster. Its name in Hebrew, behemot, is a pluralization of the Hebrew word for beast, behemah. A key feature of the Behemoth is that it is too large and ferocious for human beings to tame — only God is able to do it. Later Jewish interpretations hold that it was male and lived on land, as opposed to its counterpart, the female sea creature Leviathan.

4. Leviathan (Isaiah 27, Psalms 74, Job 41)

Also described in the Book of Job, the Leviathan is another primordial monster of mythic size and strength. The Leviathan is aquatic, and outside of Job it is also mentioned in Isaiah and Psalms. In Isaiah, we learn that Leviathan has serpent-like qualities and in Job we learn that it has scales and can breathe fire. All of this amounts to an underwater creature that is somewhat dragon-like.

Various Jewish midrashim suggest that the Leviathan and Behemoth will engage in an epic battle at the end of time, and that the righteous will ultimately feast on their flesh. There is another midrash that says originally two Leviathans were created, one male and one female, but God slew the female so they would not multiply and dominate the world. According to this legend, the lone male Leviathan continues to lurk in the depths of the ocean.

5. Ziz (Psalms 50 and 80)

As the Behemoth is a land creature of mythical proportions and its counterpart, the Leviathan, rules the sea, there is also speculation that the ziz, mentioned twice in the psalms, was a singular bird so large its wingspan could block out the sun. According to Jewish legend, the egg of the ziz once broke and its fluids flooded 60 cities.

6. Man-Eating Fish (Jonah 2)

In the Book of Jonah, read in synagogue on Yom Kippur, the prophet is charged with going to Nineveh to tell the wicked people there to stop sinning, but Jonah instead runs away on a boat bound for Tarshish. When Jonah’s boat is threatened by a storm, he knows God is after him and tells the sailors they must throw him overboard. But God doesn’t let Jonah sink to the bottom of the sea. Instead, Jonah is swallowed by a large fish and then dwells for three days inside its belly, until the fish spits him back onto land, whole and undigested. According to the midrash, this remarkable fish narrowly escaped being swallowed by the Leviathan, which gobbles up whales and other large sea creatures.

7. Rainbow Unicorn (Numbers 4)

Numbers 4:25 describes a covering of animal skins made to drape over the mishkan, the portable sanctuary that the Israelites built for the duration of their wandering in the wilderness: “They shall bear the curtains of the Tabernacle, and the Tent of Meeting, its covering, and the covering of tahash that is upon it.” The word tahash refers to a creature, but no one is quite sure what it is. Some translations suggest that it is a dolphin or seal. The Talmud has another idea:

Rabbi Ela said that Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said that Rabbi Meir used to say: The tahash that existed in the days of Moses was a creature unto itself … And it had a single horn on its forehead, and this tahash happened to come to Moses for the moment while the Tabernacle was being built, and he made the covering for the Tabernacle from it. And from then on, the tahash was suppressed and is no longer found. (Shabbat 28b)

The rabbis also say that the tahash had multicolored skin. One horn, skin of many colors, and it was never seen again? Sure sounds like a rainbow unicorn.

The post Seven Mythical Animals in the Bible appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Invite Your Guests

Are you having seder with only your immediate family? Will you invite extended family? Friends? Or perhaps you’re planning to have seder alone? The seder is a learning experience that changes depending on who comes to the table. It’s never too early to extend invitations and firm up your guest list. 

Choose a Haggadah

The Haggadah contains all the blessings, prayers and songs you will need to host your seder, and it can be helpful if everyone at your seder is using the same one. There are an overwhelming number of Haggadahs on the market, and many that are free for download. You may also be able to borrow a set from a friend. If you don’t know where to start, check out our guide to choosing a Haggadah.

If you are planning a seder with young children, our colleagues at Kveller have produced a Haggadah that may work well for you.

Plan Your Menu

Now that you know who will attend your seder, you can plan a dinner that all will enjoy. You can review this article about what is kosher for Passover and ask guests about their dietary needs. Consider whether there are any family recipes you look forward to making. If you need something new to try, our friends at the Nosher have curated wonderful Passover recipes for every diet and course. Because dinner can come late in a seder, it is helpful to have some appetizers on the table as well so your guests don’t get too hungry.

Plan for the Ritual

Do you have a seder plate or other physical items that are used during a seder? If not, consider purchasing or borrowing those things. There are myriad ways to make a seder ritual meaningful. You might start by familiarizing yourself with the 14 basic steps of a Passover seder and get to know the Haggadah you’ve chosen. This is a starting point, but there is much more you can add. For example, the traditional Haggadah doesn’t tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt — it leaves seder participants to do that in their own way. How would you like to tell the story? There are also many ways for people to participate, either with planned additions or spontaneous conversation. Consider asking your guests to bring articles, poems or other passages to read that are particularly meaningful to them. You might also figure out who will ask the Four Questions so that person can prepare. And think about keeping young children happy and comfortable for the night, either with materials appropriate to them or things like Lego. This might also be a good time to ask your guests to contribute dishes to the meal.

Finding the Haggadah overwhelming? We have an email series that will break it down for you.

Clean

Clean your house and prepare your kitchen the way you ordinarily would for Passover before you start cooking. We have tips for making the cleaning more manageable. 

Shop

In addition to whatever you need for your meal, you will also need special foods for the seder ritual. This includes lots of matzah, which you can purchase or even make yourself. You will also need a generous amount of wine. For your seder plate, you will need parsley, romaine lettuce, haroset, bitter herbs, a shank bone and an egg.

Set the Table

In addition to setting a festive table for your guests, you will want to add items needed for the ritual. Each guest will need a comfortable seat (ideally with a pillow for leaning) and table setting, a glass for wine and a Haggadah. The center of your table will also require a seder plate, a plate with three covered matzahs, a bowl of salt water for dipping the parsley, a cup for Elijah and candles to light as the seder begins.

Take a Deep Breath

Creating a relaxed and warm atmosphere is your last job. Welcome your guests with a smile, and don’t worry about every detail being perfect. The wine spilled on the tablecloth or the afikomen that got permanently lost will just be stories to tell in future years. Chag Sameach!

Prep for Passover like a pro with this special email series. Click here to sign up and you’ll receive a series of helpful, informative, and beautiful emails that will help you get the most out of the holiday.

The post How to Plan a Passover Seder appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Hebrew is part of the family of Semitic languages. (In fact, the word “Semitic” is of Hebrew origin, deriving from the biblical character Shem, one of Noah’s sons.) In some cases, it’s not entirely clear if the word in question is imported directly from Hebrew or another Semitic language, like Akkadian or Phoenician.

Adonis: In classical Greek mythology, Adonis was the human lover of the goddess Aphrodite. His outstanding trait was his unsurpassed beauty and thus the term’s use as a description of an extremely handsome man. The name actually comes from a Hebrew (possibly by way of Phoenician) word, adon, meaning lord. This remains one of the words Jews use for God (Adonai, literally means “my Lord”) and in the popular hymn Adon Olam (Master of the World).

Amen: The word amen is built on the Hebrew verbal root aleph-mem-nun (אמנ), which means faith or belief. Reciting amen therefore indicates that the speaker affirms the truth of what was said.

Babble: The origins of this word are obscure. It may come from the word “baby,” which itself is likely derived from the sorts of syllables that young children make when they are learning to speak. Some suggest it derives from the story of the Tower of Babel (bavel in Hebrew, the word for ancient Babylonia). In this famous story, God caused people to speak different languages so they could not understand one another and seemed to babble.

Bedlam: Meaning mayhem, bedlam is a medieval form of Bethlehem, the Judean town where Jesus was born. The Hebrew name of the town was Beit Lechem, meaning House of Bread. The word bedlam originally referred to the London Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, which became a psychiatric institution in the 15th century. By the 17th century, bethlehem morphed to bedlam and became a general term for any hospital that housed mentally ill patients, and from there a byword for any scene of pandemonium.

Behemoth: In the Hebrew Bible, a behemah is a wild land animal. One of the great primordial beasts mentioned in the Bible, the Behemoth, takes its name from the “intensive plural” of this word — meaning a plural form that doesn’t refer to multiples but to a much stronger or more intense form. Similarly, leviathan derives from the Hebrew leviatan, a primeval sea monster found in the Book of Job.

Brouhaha: Meaning a hubbub or noisy commotion, this word was first recorded in the 19th century in French, where it appeared as three words: brou ha ha. It was often placed in the mouth of the devil. There is speculation that it may derive from the Hebrew expression barukh haba (“welcome”) because Jews were frequently heard saying this to one another but it was incomprehensible to those who did not speak Hebrew.

Cabal: Meaning an evil plot, the word cabal is connected to the Jewish mystical tradition called Kabbalah. The word kabbalah derives from a Hebrew root that means reception, implying the mystical traditions have been received and then transmitted. After it was first used as a word for nefarious plotters in medieval France, the word popped up in 17th-century England where it was applied to a special committee of five ministers whose last names began with the letters C, A, B, A and L (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale). These five ministers, serving under King Charles II, effectively ran the government.

Camel: The word for camel comes from Greek kamelos, which itself likely draws on the Hebrew (or possibly Arabic) word gamal. Gamal sounds similar to the Hebrew letter gimmel (ג) and it is speculated that the letter itself might be a pictogram of the animal.

Cherub: One of the Bible’s words for angel is kheruv, which gives rise to the English word cherub. Two kheruvim, for instance, are mounted on the Ark of the Covenant, and the Garden of Eden is guarded by a kheruv wielding a fiery sword. Because they are represented as winged babies in medieval Christian iconography, many people picture them as small and adorable. The biblical conception, however, is much fiercer. The idea that cherubs are babies may derive from a later rabbinic folk etymology which claims that the Hebrew kheruv is derived from the Aramaic ke-ravya, meaning “like a child.” Similarly, seraph, another celestial being, is based on a biblical Hebrew word of the same meaning.

Cider: These days, people use cider to mean unrefined apple juice, but for most of history it has referred primarily to a fermented drink. As such, it derives from the Greek word sikera which comes from the Hebrew shekar, which means “strong drink.”

Jacket: The word jacket derives from an Old French word, jaquet, which itself comes from the popular French given name Jacques. That name is likely the French equivalent of Jacob, or Yaakov in Hebrew, but it could be the equivalent of John (Yochanan in Hebrew). Either way, jacket apparently derives from a biblical Hebrew name.

Jubilee: Jubilee comes to us through the Latin jubilaeus, which itself comes from the Hebrew word yovel. This is a Hebrew name for the occasion, every 50 years, when debts were forgiven and slaves freed. Today, jubilee continues to refer to a 50th anniversary. Latin frequently represented the Hebrew letter yod (y), and in the case of jubilee may have converted the o of yovel to a u to create an association with the Latin word jubilare, or jubilation, reflecting the mood of this momentous year which was experienced, by most people, once in a lifetime.

Kosher: Referring to food that is suitable for a Jew who follows Jewish dietary law to eat, kosher derives from the Hebrew kasher meaning fit. In English, it is used colloquially far beyond food.

Map: The word map derives from the Latin mappa meaning napkin or cloth because this is what maps were originally drawn on. The Latin term derives from a Semitic root, mappa, of the same meaning. In Modern Hebrew, the word mappa means both tablecloth and map and the related word mapit means napkin.

Maven: Meaning expert, the word maven derives from a Hebrew verb that means to understand. It comes to English through Yiddish.

Messiah: In Hebrew, mashiach, the term for the messiah, didn’t originally mean an end-of-days savior, but instead referred to anyone who was anointed, usually a king. In Jewish tradition, the ultimate Messiah will derive from the line of King David, who established the eternal ruling dynasty of the Jewish people.

Ruthless: The biblical Ruth (Hebrew: rut, likely derived from the Hebrew word for friendship) was known for her kindness and her name was adopted as an old English word for pity (which had a more positive meaning centuries ago). That usage is now archaic, but ruthless — i.e., merciless — is still part of our lexicon.

Sabbatical: Meaning a period of rest, a sabbatical often applies to a person taking leave from a job. Sabbatical is derived from the Hebrew word shabbat.

Sack: The Hebrew word sak has the same meaning as the English: an open-ended bag. The word gives rise to many other English variants, including satchel, knapsack and rucksack. It is also the origin of the word sackcloth (also sak in Hebrew, see Esther 4:1), meaning the coarse material used to construct a sack.

Sapphire: This gemstone can be traced back to the Latin sapphirus and the Greek sappheiros, but it is suspected that it comes to those languages from a Semitic language. In the Hebrew Bible, God sits in the heavens on a throne that appears to be made of the gemstone sappir,  which is usually understood to mean sapphire. (Exodus 24:10, Ezekiel 1:26)

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The post English Words of Hebrew Origin appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

After his 1977 arrest on trumped-up charges of treason and espionage, Sharanky became the face of the global fight for Soviet Jewry, his image plastered on posters held aloft at protests around the world and on the cover of Time magazine. After his release and emigration to Israel in 1986, he became a leader of the Russian-Israeli community and an international symbol of conscience, speaking out about the importance of democracy and human rights. 

Sharansky was born Anatoly Scharansky in 1948 to secular Jews in what is now Donetsk, Ukraine. His father, Boris, was a journalist who had served in the Red Army and his mother, Ida, an engineer. Sharansky was a chess prodigy in his youth, a talent he would later credit with helping maintain his sanity through long periods of solitary confinement during which he played games in his head. He earned a degree in mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and later went to work for the Oil and Gas Research Institute, a state research laboratory. 

Like many Soviet Jews of his generation, Sharansky was almost completely ignorant about Judaism. Theirs was a country that had virtually eliminated organized Jewish life and institutionalized antisemitism, but had also refused to allow its Jewish community to emigrate, often on the flimsy pretext that doing so posed a security threat. In Moscow, Sharansky fell in with a group of Soviet Jews who were secretly studying Hebrew and seeking to emigrate to Israel. On Shabbat, he would congregate with other activists in the street outside the Moscow synagogue. 

But Sharansky also saw his plight as a Jew as inextricable from the larger fight for human rights. He grew close to the dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov, who won the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights work, eventually becoming his spokesperson. Along with Sakharov, he was among the founders of the Moscow Helsinki group, which sought to pressure the Soviets to live up to their international obligations to respect fundamental freedoms. “Above all else,” Gal Beckerman wrote in his history of the Soviet Jewry movement, “[Sharansky] believed that asserting his rights as a human being only reinforced what he was claiming for himself as a Jew.”

Learn more about Jews from Ukraine who changed the world.

In October 1973, Sharansky met Natalya (later Avital) Stiglits, whose brother had recently been arrested, at a gathering near the Moscow synagogue. Shortly after, Sharansky applied for an exit visa and was denied, making him officially a refusenik, the term applied to Soviet Jews who had been refused the right to emigrate. The following summer, in advance of a visit to Moscow by U.S. President Richard Nixon, Sharansky was detained, likely out of concern he and other activists would use the visit to draw attention to their cause. While he was being held, Avital’s exit visa was approved, but it was only valid for a week. In the short period between Sharansky’s release and the visa’s expiration, the two married in a private religious ceremony. Avital departed for Israel the following day. 

With Avital gone, Sharansky’s activism in the dissident movement grew, and with it the close scrutiny of the KGB. In early March 1977, a full-page article in the newspaper Izvestia falsely accused him and other Jewish activists of espionage. Barely a week later, KGB agents seized Sharansky on the streets of Moscow. Sharansky would ultimately spend nine years in Soviet prison, including more than 400 days in isolation cells and 200 days of hunger strikes, which took a significant and lasting toll on his health. At one point, he weighed just 77 pounds. Meanwhile, from Israel, Avital led a tireless campaign for his release, meeting with top government officials around the world and catapulting herself to celebrity. 

The effort would finally yield fruit on the morning of February 11, 1986, when Sharansky was flown from a Soviet prison to East Berlin, where he was to be released in a prisoner exchange. Among the stories told about that day is that Sharansky walked in a zigzag pattern to freedom, a final gesture of defiance of Soviet agents who had ordered him to march straight. At the Glienicke Bridge separating Berlin from Potsdam, Sharansky was met by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Burt and ushered into a waiting Mercedes. He and Avital reunited shortly after in Frankfurt and, by nightfall, he was on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport, where Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres embraced him. From there, he was whisked to the Western Wall in Jerusalem where he was carried on the shoulders of hundreds of Israelis. 

Sharansky’s first years in Israel were momentous. His first child, Rachel, was born within a year of his arrival. In 1988, Random House published his memoir, Fear No Evil, its title taken from a verse in Psalm 23. Sharansky also quickly emerged as a leader of a Russian-speaking community that had ballooned after the fall of the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews began arriving in Israel, radically transforming the country politically and demographically. Along with another former Soviet dissident, Yuli Edelstein, Sharansky formed a new political party in 1995, Yisrael BaAliyah, which placed immigrant concerns at the forefront of its agenda. In its first electoral showing in the 1996 elections, the party won seven seats and joined the governing coalition. Sharansky became a cabinet minister, leading the Ministry of Industry and Trade. 

Sharansky served in the Israeli government for a decade, during which he held a number of positions, including deputy prime minister, minister of the interior and minister of housing and construction. His political career ended in 2006 with his resignation from the Knesset. In the years that followed, he served in a number of prominent positions, most notably chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a position he held from 2009 to 2018. 

In 2004, Sharansky published The Case for Democracy, which became an international best-seller. The book landed during the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, who made the promotion of democracy around the world a centerpiece of his foreign policy. Bush invited Sharansky to the Oval Office to discuss the book, which he recommended frequently. In 2006, Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sharansky has openly criticized Democratic and Republican presidents alike for betraying a tradition of tying American foreign policy to human rights concerns, a coupling he credits with successfully pressuring the Soviet Union on Jewish emigration. 

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The Jewish calendar operates on a 19-year cycle during which there are always seven leap years, on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the cycle. 

How long has the Jewish calendar had leap years?

The Jewish calendar has had leap years for thousands of years, but they have not always been calculated in the same way. During Temple times, leap years were determined by committee each spring. The Sanhedrin, the high Jewish court, would consider whether there were adequate signs of spring in the natural world and then decide whether or not the year required an additional month:

On account of three signs do they intercalate (i.e., add a leap month to) the year: the grain, produce on the tree, lateness of the spring equinox. 

Tosefta Sanhedrin 2:2

Fourth-century Roman persecution put an end to the Sanhedrin. Around this time, according to Jewish tradition, a rabbi named Hillel II (not to be confused with Hillel the Elder) recommended switching to a fixed calendar that uses a 19-year cycle with seven embedded leap years. This system is still in use today.

Learn more about how the Jewish calendar works here.

Purim in Leap Years

Purim is marked each year on the 14th of Adar. During a leap year, Purim is celebrated in Adar II. 

The Mishnah explains that if Purim is celebrated during Adar I and then the year is intercalated (and a second Adar is added), Purim must be celebrated a second time. Once the calendar was fixed, it was possible to know ahead of time when there would be a second Adar and so, to avoid celebrating Purim twice each year, the sages placed Purim in Adar II.

But why did the Mishnah require celebrating Purim during the second month of Adar in the first place? Most likely to keep a consistent spacing between Purim and Passover (which falls in the next month, Nisan), as the Talmud states:

Rabbi Tavi said: The reason for the opinion of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is that juxtaposing the celebration of one redemption, Purim, to the celebration of another redemption, Passover, is preferable.

Megillah 6b:27

In leap years, the 14th and 15th of Adar I are known as Purim Katan (literally “Small Purim”). According to the Shulchan Aruch, a 15th-century law code, Purim Katan is not a full-blown Purim celebration, but it is a time of increased joy. The sorrowful Tachanun is omitted from daily prayers, and mourning activities such as fasting or delivering a eulogy are forbidden. Some also have the custom of eating a special or particularly delightful meal on Purim Katan. 

Yahrzeits in Leap Years

If the death occurred during a leap year, the yahrzeit is marked once in the same month as the death, either Adar I or Adar II. If the death occurred in the month of Adar during a non-leap year, most Jewish legal authorities (in accordance with Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 568:7)  hold that it is marked during Adar II. Likewise, birthdays, bar/bat mitzvahs and other observances tied to a specific date in Adar are held in the leap month. This includes Moses’ birthday and yahrzeit, both on the 7th of Adar (Deuteronomy 32:48–52).

Some Ashkenazi communities have the custom to observe an Adar yahrzeit twice during leap years, once during each Adar; this originates in an alternative interpretation of the Shulchan Aruch by Rabbi Moses Isserles, a 16th-century Jewish law authority also known as the Rema. 

Torah Portions in Leap Years

The Torah is divided into 54 portions that are read over the course of a year in synagogue — enough for one portion every week of a leap year. During non-leap years, when there are only 50 weeks, some of these portions are doubled up so that the entire Torah is still read over the course of the year.

Find a calendar of Jewish holidays here.

The post The Jewish Leap Year Explained appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

How do Jews Celebrate Purim Katan?

The primary way to mark Purim Katan is to make one’s meal a little more festive. In addition, it is traditional to refrain from fasting, eulogizing or reciting Tachanun, a series of penitential prayers that are added to the Shacharit (morning) and Mincha (afternoon) prayer services. This is designed to ensure it is a happy day rather than a mournful one. (See the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 697:1.) The major rituals of Purim — reading megillah, giving gifts, reciting Al Hanisim — are not observed on Purim Katan and are reserved for the full Purim celebration that will take place a month later in Adar II.

Why Does the Jewish Calendar Sometimes Have a Second Adar?

Jewish months are lunar, meaning they follow the cycle of the moon. The Jewish year has 12 Hebrew months that are each 29 or 30 days. This means that the number of days in a Jewish year falls well short of the 365 days in a solar year. To prevent calendar drift and keep the holidays in consistent seasons, the Jewish calendar adds occasional leap months, just as the secular calendar occasionally adds a leap day. When it is a Jewish leap year, that month is Adar II.

Learn more about the Jewish calendar.

Other Mini Purims

Throughout much of Jewish history, individual Jewish communities have established other minor Purim celebrations, sometimes also called Purim Katan. These days are meant to commemorate extraordinary historical moments in the life of that particular Jewish community when it was spared some kind of disaster. It is customary, on these minor Purims, to model the celebration on the Purim of Esther and Mordechai: to fast the day prior, to read a scroll that depicts the events being celebrated, to hold a festive meal, to give gifts to the poor. Unlike the Purim Katan held in Adar I, these minor Purim celebrations are held at whatever time of year the event being commemorated originally happened.

Here are a few examples of minor Purim celebrations that have been established by specific Jewish communities:

• Purim of Saragossa (17th/18th Shevat)
• Purim of Shiraz (2nd of Heshvan)
• Purim of Tiberias (4th of Elul)
• Purim of Tripoli (15th of Shevat)
• Purim of Frankfurt, also known as Purim Vinz (20th of Adar)

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At the end of the Book of Genesis, the dying patriarch Jacob gathers his sons, the primogenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel, and gives them each a blessing. In the blessing for Judah, he repeatedly compares his fourth son to the king of beasts:

Judah is like a young lion.

From prey, my son, have you risen up.

He crouches, lies low as a lion,

And like a lion, who can rouse him?

Genesis 49:9

In the following verse, Jacob asserts that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah,” foreshadowing the permanent dynasty of King David — who was said to have the heart of a lion (2 Samuel 17:10) — which will issue from this tribe, culminating one day in the messiah.

Judah came to be the dominant tribe of Israel, and a symbol for the entire Jewish people, after the ten of the tribes were lost following a revolt that led to them being conquered by the Assyrians. The word Judaism itself derives from the tribe of Judah. Judah’s symbol thus became a Jewish symbol. 

In ancient Jewish sources, the lion is a symbol of fierce strength and nobility. Though no longer found in that part of the world, they populated ancient Israel and posed a deadly threat to its inhabitants. Biblical heroes, such as David and Samson, demonstrated their might by slaying them single-handedly. In the Talmud, the lion is called “king of the beasts” (Chagigah 13b) and rabbis refer to their most esteemed colleagues as lions (Gittin 83a, Shabbat 111a). The most significant medieval law code, the Shulchan Aruch, opens with the following line: “One should strengthen himself like a lion to get up in the morning to serve his Creator.” (Orach Chayim, 1:1)

Lions have been a part of Israelite and then Jewish imagery from the beginning: Lions adorned the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 7:29) and prophetic visions of the divine chariot described lions as part of God’s throne (e.g. Ezekiel 1:10). The lion has appeared on some of the earliest Jewish coins as well as, in the early 1980s, the half shekel of the modern State of Israel. It is a motif found on Jewish ritual objects, including menorahs, ketubahs and synagogue decorations, and on Jewish cemetery headstones. It is also found on the contemporary municipal seal of Jerusalem.

In another indication of its significance, Hebrew has several words that mean lion: aryeh (most common), lavi or leviah (often but not exclusively used for female lions), kefir (young male lion), gur (lion cub), layish and shachal (both more poetic). Many Jews name their children using a word for lion, most often Aryeh, Ariel (lion of God) or Ari (diminutive). Since the lion is a symbol of Judah, it is frequently combined with that name, making Judah Aryeh a popular choice. Aryeh and Judah are also often seen in combination with the Yiddish word for lion, yielding Aryeh Leib or Judah Leib.

The lion of Judah is a popular image beyond the Jewish community. Because the lion is associated with the messiah, it has also been adopted as a symbol of Jesus among Christians. In addition, the lion of Judah served as a symbol of the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, a nearly nine-centuries long line of emperors who claimed descent from the Israelite King Solomon and Queen of Sheba. While the line ended with Haile Selassie’s death in 1974, the lion is still an important symbol for the Rastafarian movement.

The post How the Lion of Judah Became a Jewish Symbol appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

From the perspective of Jewish law, lab-grown meat poses several novel questions, most obviously if it’s kosher. The short answer is yes, but the details are a bit more complex. 

What is Cultivated Meat?

Cultivated meat is meat produced from cells harvested from an animal that are then replicated under controlled laboratory conditions. Once the cells have reached a certain size and density, they are harvested, blended with additives and sold to consumers. The process requires no farmland, no animals and no slaughtering. Many believe cultivated meat will help satisfy growing global demand for animal protein in a more environmentally sustainable way, since it eliminates the need for vast tracts of land to be given over to meat production and the ethically and ecologically problematic practice of raising animals in confined feeding facilities. It also addresses ethical concerns about the treatment of animals in industrial-scale meat production. 

The first cultivated beef patty was produced in 2013, and Singapore became the first country to approve it for sale. As of early 2024, a small number of producers have been approved for commercial sale in the United States, but the product is not yet widely available. 

Is It Kosher?

In a word, yes, but the specifics matter. 

For one, the animal from which the cells are harvested must be a kosher animal. Cultured pork would not be considered kosher, even though the meat didn’t grow inside a pig, because the original cells came from a unkosher animal. 

The next consideration is the method of extracting the cells from which the cultivated meat will be grown. The most common method is taking them from a living animal. Some Jewish law authorities believe this renders the final product unkosher because Jewish law bars eating meat that is taken from a living animal, a prohibition known as ever min hachai. The Orthodox Union, the largest kosher meat supervising agency in the world, has taken this position, but other authorities disagree. The Conservative movement, in a paper adopted in 2017, argues that culturing tissue from a living animal is acceptable for four reasons: The quantity of cultured cells is tiny, the original cells are present in only trace amounts in the final product, the descendent cells are grown outside the animal’s body, and the final eaten cells may be sufficiently transformed in the course of production as to render them distinct from the originals. 

In 2023, the OU gave its first kosher certification for cultured meat to an Israeli startup that solved the extraction problem by culturing cells from a fertilized chicken egg. Since eggs are kosher, the resulting meat is considered kosher. Another Israeli company, Aleph Farms, produces beef cultured from a fertilized cow egg and is pursuing kosher certification. 

Is It Meat?

The other central question posed by synthetic meat is whether Jewish law considers it actual meat. This matters for Jews who observe laws about eating meat and dairy products together. If Jewish law doesn’t consider cultivated beef to be meat, then it should be permitted to eat it with cheese. 

Rabbis are divided on this question. In 2022, the Israeli daily Israel Hayom reported that a handful of Israeli rabbis had ruled that since fertilized chicken eggs and pre-embryonic cow cells are not considered meat, the meat products derived from them in a laboratory should not be considered meat either. As a result, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be eaten with dairy. “Despite the end product’s external similarity to meat products, it is no different in essence to the plant-based meat substitutes on the market,” the rabbis said. 

Israeli Chief Rabbi David Lau also endorsed this position, ruling that meat produced by Aleph Farms is pareve — that is, neither meat nor dairy — and can therefore be eaten with dairy products. However Lau introduced an important caveat, determining that this is so only if the product is not marketed as “meat” and is not made to look and taste like regular meat. Lau’s qualifications are rooted in the concern for marit ayin, a rabbinic principle which calls for one to avoid even the appearance of violating the law. 

American rabbis have taken a more stringent view of this question. The OU has determined that cultured meat should be considered meat, as did the Conservative movement’s 2017 paper, which cited both marit ayin and the fear that kosher consumers might grow confused and wind up mixing actual meat with dairy. It also argued that in cases of doubt regarding a biblical prohibition (the ban on eating dairy and meat together derives directly from the Bible), the practice is to take a stringent approach. 

The post Is Lab-Grown Meat Kosher? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

It is widely asserted that the word derives from the Aramaic expression avra k’davra which, depending on how one renders it in Hebrew letters, can mean either “It was created as I spoke” or “It came to pass as I spoke.” However, the phrase appears in no ancient Jewish sources.

The Oxford English Dictionary claims that its etymological roots are unknown. The OED notes the claim of Hebrew or Aramaic origin alongside theories that it comes from Greek (abraxas was a mystical word inscribed on amulets) or other languages, but asserts there’s no documentation that can prove any of it.  

What is broadly agreed is that the word itself first appeared in print in the second century in a volume by the Roman physician Serenus Sammonicus. Serenus prescribed the wearing of an amulet inscribed with the word in an inverted pyramid shape, with each iteration removing one letter until only the first remains. 

The case for a Jewish origin of the word is circumstantial, and likely derives at least some of its power from the fact that it just feels correct: “It was created as I spoke” feels like exactly what a magician means as she pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But there are a few commonly cited pieces of evidence, among them a talmudic formulation for warding off an evil water demon known as Shavrirei. The incantation suggested in the Talmud consists of reciting the demon’s name while removing a letter from the beginning each time, a method similar to Serenesus’ Abracadabra formulation. 

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, in the introduction to his translation of the mystical text Sefer Yetzirah, notes the similarity of abracadabra to another talmudic phrase: ravah barah gavrah, which means “Rava created a man.” The phrase appears in the context of a story in which the talmudic sage Rava created a golem using mystical knowledge. The similarity in language alludes to Rava imitating the life-creating power of God, who spoke the universe into being — abracadabra. 

It has also been suggested that the word is an acronym for the Hebrew words av, ben and ruakh hakodesh, which translates to “father, son and the holy spirit.” 

Yet despite the paucity of source material, the idea that abracadabra derives from Hebrew or Aramaic is widespread and routinely asserted without qualification. Rabbi Alan Lew, in his classic work This Is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared, writes that it is “a popular talmudic dictum that expressed the widely held talmudic belief that things do indeed come to pass because they are spoken.” A similar claim is made in this My Jewish Learning article about demons and ghosts.

The post Is Abracadabra a Jewish word? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be patient in justice, raise many disciples and make a fence around the Torah.

Pirke Avot 1:1

In this iconic text, the rabbis describe how the Torah is passed from one generation to the next to form an ongoing chain of transmission.

As a people who have mostly lived as minorities scattered across the globe, Jews in every generation have been scrupulous about passing their traditions forward, knowing that Jewish survival depends on passing the torch to every generational link in that chain. A phrase that has come to represent that sentiment is the Hebrew expression l’dor vador, meaning from generation (dor) to generation. There are several variants on this phrase that all carry a similar meaning, including dor l’dor, l’dor dorim and midor vador. 

The phrase l’dor vador and its variants is found many times in the Hebrew Bible, mostly in the Psalms, but also in a few prophetic books. In the Bible, it refers to that which has been established eternally and does not require human effort to sustain. It is essentially a synonym for the word l’olam, meaning forever. Often, it refers to God, for instance:

O Lord, Your name endures forever (l’olam),

Your fame, O Lord, through all generations (l’dor vador ).

Psalm 135:13

In the Hebrew Bible, l’dor vador is also used to affirm Israel’s unending love for God (Psalm 79:13) and the eternal kingship of David (Psalm 89:5). 

The phrase l’dor vador and its variants are repeated in many daily Jewish prayers and blessings, including the psalms of Pesukei D’Zimra and Kabbalat Shabbat, the Amidah, Ashrei and Birkat HaMazon. For Jews who pray regularly, this makes it an oft-repeated phrase.

Explore the meaning of another favorite Jewish slogan, Am Yisrael Chai.

The post What Does L’dor Vador Mean? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 +7 + 8 + 9 = 44

A traditional box of Hanukkah candles should have 44 individual candles, though sometimes they are packaged in sets of 45 in case one breaks.

Everything you need to know about lighting Hanukkah candles.

Your calculation may be different if you use the Sephardi system of menorah lighting. While Ashkenazi Jews use the shamash to light the other candles, Sephardi Jews use a separate source of fire to light all candles, including the shamash. This separate source need not be a candle. It could, for instance, be a lighter. But some Sephardi Jews use another candle to light. In this case, you would need more than 44 candles.

Is there any significance to the number 44? As it turns out, there is a Hasidic teaching from Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev about why we light this many candles on Hanukkah:

On Hanukkah we light 36 candles, and the Service of Below arouses Above to light 36 lights, and 36 of Above with 36 of Below is 72, corresponding to the 72 Names of the Blessed One, and counting the shamash we get 44, and with corresponding 44 from Above we get 88 [פ”ח]. And the hint behind 88: “the trap (פח) broke and we were saved” (Ps. 124:7). Through the trap that was broken, the kingdom of Antiochus, we cause Below and Above to light 88 lights…

Kedushat Levi, Homilies for Hanukkah

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev explains that if we exclude the shamash, over the course of Hanukkah we light 36 candles here on earth. Above, in the heavens, 36 more candles are lit, bringing the total to 72, which is equivalent to the number of names for the divine. Further, he says, if we include the shamash that is lit eight times, the number of candles is 44. When we envision that 44 parallel candles are lit in the heavens, this brings the total to 88 which, in gematria (the Jewish system of assigning numerical values to letters) is equivalent to the value of the Hebrew word pach, meaning trap. This alludes to the miracle of Hanukkah, since the Maccabees broke the trap laid by King Antiochus.

Learn more about gematria.

Discover other numbers with significant meaning in Judaism.

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There is only one mitzvah associated with Hanukkah, and that is lighting the Hanukkah candles. A box of basic Hanukkah candles can usually be acquired at a grocery store, Judaica shop, or online for a few dollars. It is lovely to have a beautiful menorah, and inexpensive disposable ones can also be acquired fairly cheaply, but in truth you can make your own or even light a row of the appropriate number of tea candles placed directly on a table and this will fulfill the mitzvah.

The most common Hanukkah traditions outside of candle-lighting are eating latkes and jelly donuts and playing dreidel. Latkes, especially, can be made with relatively inexpensive ingredients: potatoes, oil, some kind of binder and seasonings like salt, flour, matzah meal, and egg. But you need not make or eat latkes. Around the world and through time, Jews have eaten a variety of fried foods, and there is no requirement to eat any.

A simple recipe for potato latkes.

Likewise, a dreidel is a simple spinning top and can be acquired cheaply. You can play the game with any kind of simple marker — pennies, poker chips, jelly beans, or peanuts.

The biggest Hanukkah expense for most families usually comes in the form of gifts. Here, it is helpful to know that there is no requirement to give expensive gifts — or even give gifts at all — on Hanukkah. Traditionally, gifts are only given on Purim and it is only in the last 150 years, and because of its proximity to Christmas, that Jews have given gifts on Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is about celebrating religious freedom. A joyful atmosphere and celebration can be engineered on any budget.

Tips for celebrating Passover on a budget.

The post How to Celebrate Hanukkah on a Budget appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

The Torah prohibits labor on both Shabbat and certain holidays. The prohibition against labor on Shabbat is in fact one of the Ten Commandments, and specific labors are mentioned elsewhere in the Torah, including: laboring in the field (Exodus 34:21), gathering sticks (Numbers 15:35) and lighting a fire (Exodus 25:3). The sages of the Talmud outlined a complete set of forbidden labors — 39 categories in all — based on the work that was done to construct the Tabernacle in the wilderness. A major tenet of Jewish observance for millennia now has been abstaining from labor on the Sabbath. 

The laws concerning labor on major holidays are similar. Most labors that are forbidden on Shabbat are also forbidden on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the first and final days of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. There are a few exceptions made for preparing foods. Labor is permitted on the intermediate days of Passover and Sukkot, called hol hamo’ed, though here too there are some limits in place. However, on minor holidays like Purim and Hanukkah, there is no prohibition on labor. One may go to work, use electricity, cook meals and otherwise go about normal routines on this day. 

However, because Hanukkah is eight days long, there is always one day that overlaps with Shabbat. In this case, the normal labors of Shabbat are forbidden. This transforms Hanukkah practice slightly on the Friday and Saturday of Hanukkah. Because lighting a fire is forbidden on Shabbat, the timing of lighting Hanukkah candles is slightly adjusted. On most days, Hanukkah candles are ideally lit right after sundown, though they can be lit later into the night. On Friday night, however, Hanukkah candles are lit just before sundown and before Shabbat candles are lit (normally in the 18-minute window that precedes sundown). On Saturday night, Hanukkah candles may not be lit until Shabbat is over, meaning after Havdalah is made, when three stars are visible in the sky or, alternatively, 45 minutes after sundown. (There is some disagreement about the precise number of minutes in that window.)

Find out when Shabbat candles are lit in your area.

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