What Is Tikkun Olam?
“Repair of the world.” A term with a deep Kabbalistic origin and a wide contemporary application — both worth knowing.
Diving Deeper
Deeper Questions, Facts, Reading, Prayers, and Judaica
Photograph
Diving Deeper
Why Did God Create the World?
Three classical answers — the rationalist, the kabbalist, and the Hasidic — and why each is illuminating.
Continue reading →What Is Mussar?
The Jewish discipline of character refinement — old as the Talmud, formalized in the 19th century by Rabbi Yisrael Salanter.
Hasidism vs. Mitnagdism
The great 18th-century split that still shapes the contemporary Orthodox world.
What Is Kabbalah?
The Jewish mystical tradition — the inner Torah, esoteric and beautiful, central since the 13th century.
The Oral Torah and Its Authority
Orthodoxy holds that Moshe received both a Written and an Oral Torah at Sinai. The doctrine is the foundation of Halacha.
Pirkei Avot
“Ethics of the Fathers” — the tractate of Jewish ethical wisdom traditionally read between Pesach and Shavuot.
Midrash
The rabbinic genre of creative biblical interpretation — filling gaps, drawing moral lessons, and reading the text in surprising directions.
Chukim, Mishpatim, and Eidot
Three classical categories of mitzvot — laws beyond reason, laws of reason, and laws of testimony.
A Going-Deeper Library
Twelve books that take the New Jew from Essential to fluent.
Birkat Hamazon: The Grace After Meals
The only prayer commanded explicitly in the Torah — a substantial blessing of God for food, land, Jerusalem, and the goodness of creation.
Kaddish
The Aramaic prayer that punctuates every Jewish service — and that mourners recite for the deceased.
The Three Daily Services
Shacharit, Mincha, Ma’ariv — the three daily prayer services and their architecture.
Sukkah
The temporary dwelling that is itself a mitzvah — a roof of stars under which the Jew dwells for seven days.
Lulav and Etrog (The Four Species)
The lulav, hadasim, aravot, and etrog — the four species waved during Sukkot.
Megillot
The five biblical scrolls read on five different occasions — most famously the Megillat Esther on Purim.
Hanukkiah (Menorah)
The nine-branched candelabrum lit on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah — one of the most distinctive pieces of Jewish judaica.