Israel 552 articles

There are three things that people can leave at the kotel. They can leave their fingerprints, if they touch the wall. They can leave small notes, if they care to write...

At the beginning of every New Year, the halacha creates within us a schizophrenia of sorts. On the one hand, we are obliged to treat Rosh Hashana as Yom Tov replete...

The Mishna in Shabbat enumerates 39 distinct archetypal labors, or melachot, according to a number of series. The first is the series of making bread, which begins with sowing and is...

Following the recent flotilla fiasco facing the IDF last week, Israelis are wondering: Is Everyone Crazy? How is it that only we can appreciate the missiles raining down from Gaza, even...

Eretz Yisrael is a very holy place. However, there are four cities that are singled out as exceptionally holy, and which are imbued with special qualities. With Hashem’s help, I have...

Photos by Rebecca Kowalsky and Toby Klein Greenwald. Text by Toby Klein Greenwald Whenever I’ve completed work on a particularly exhausting project and feel the need to “get away from it all,”...

28 Elul 5769 It is always hard to sit down and write since writing doesn’t come naturally to me and the words don’t necessarily flow easily, but as the events of...

Every morning, when the radio alarm wakes me up with the Shema and a chapter of Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), I know why I made aliyah. The week before...

The daughters of Tzelafchad, those righteous and smart women, petition Moshe for a piece of land in Eretz Yisrael (Bamidbar 27, their father died and why should their family lose out)....

This week’s parsha talks about the tumah of a dead body, and the way to become purified from it. Nowadays, the main halakhic importance of this tum’a is that Kohanim are...