Judaism · israel.re · EN
Shabbat begins before sunset on Friday and ends after nightfall on Saturday. For Modern Orthodox Jews, it is not simply a day without paid employment: it is a weekly period shaped by prayer, family meals, communal worship and…
Bar mitzvah means “son of the commandment” and bat mitzvah “daughter of the commandment.” In classical Jewish law, a boy normally reaches religious majority at thirteen, while a girl traditionally does so at twelve. In many liberal…
The attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris on 9 January 2015 is an important part of the recent history of antisemitic violence in France.
Hanukkah commemorates events associated with the Maccabean revolt against Seleucid rule and the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple in the second century BCE. Later rabbinic tradition recounts the miracle of a small supply of…
In the Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a, a person asks to learn the whole Torah while standing on one foot. The story contrasts Shammai's rejection with Hillel's response. In a plain-language rendering, Hillel tells him not to do to…
Hummus is made from cooked chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt, usually served with olive oil and optional spices. It is a traditional food across the Levant and other parts of the Middle East, including…
The Italian Synagogue in central Jerusalem connects visitors with the architecture and religious art of Italy’s historic Jewish communities.
In central Jerusalem, the Museum of Italian Jewish Art preserves a rare connection between Jewish communities in Italy and modern Israel. Its best-known feature is a historic synagogue interior associated with Conegliano Veneto in…
In the summer of 2026, Café Basimta in central Jerusalem became much more than a small business. A local dispute about whether a café should open on Shabbat quickly turned into a citywide and then national argument about religion,…
Judaism is one of the world’s oldest living religious traditions. It is at once a religion, a civilization, a long memory carried across continents, and a family of communities linked by texts, rituals, holidays and argument. For…
Kabbalah is the classic name for the mystical traditions of Judaism. It is not a separate religion and not a replacement for halakha or ordinary Jewish life. Rather, it is a mode of inner interpretation that asks how God, creation,…
Kabbalah is the classic name for the mystical traditions of Judaism. It is not a separate religion and not a replacement for halakha or ordinary Jewish life. Rather, it is a mode of inner interpretation that asks how God, creation,…
Karaite Judaism emphasizes direct engagement with the Hebrew Bible and does not accept the rabbinic Oral Torah as binding in the same way that mainstream Rabbinic Judaism does. Karaite communities developed across the Middle East…
Klezmer is associated with the instrumental musical traditions of Ashkenazi Jewish communities in eastern Europe and with the many ways those traditions have developed through migration and revival. It belongs to social occasions,…
Kashrut is the Jewish framework of permitted and forbidden foods. The Torah names animals considered suitable for eating: land mammals must chew the cud and have split hooves; fish need fins and scales. The laws also identify…
“Kosher internet” can mean filtered access, a restricted device, an approved list of websites, or a family’s rules for using online services. There is no single technical standard or universal rabbinic ruling behind the phrase. A…
Lecha Dodi is one of the best-known hymns in Jewish liturgy. Sung on Friday evening during Kabbalat Shabbat, it welcomes the Sabbath as a bride and queen. The poem is emotionally accessible, but its imagery also comes from a deeply…
Lecha Dodi is one of the best-known hymns in Jewish liturgy. Sung on Friday evening during Kabbalat Shabbat, it welcomes the Sabbath as a bride and queen. The poem is emotionally accessible, but its imagery also comes from a deeply…
Who are the Na Nach Hasidim, and why do they spread religious joy with dancing and music vans? The following article distinguishes documentary facts, religious beliefs, historical memories and modern public practices.
On Friday, 9 January 2015, a gunman attacked the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket near Porte de Vincennes in Paris. Families and customers were buying food before the Jewish Sabbath. Four Jewish men were murdered: Yohan Cohen, Yoav…
Purim brings together public reading, generosity, food, costume and reflection on vulnerability and survival. Its central narrative is the Book of Esther, in which Jews in the Persian Empire face a threat and are saved through a…
The disputed 1922 note associated with Rabbi Nachman and the Na Nach Breslov movement. The following article distinguishes documentary facts, religious beliefs, historical memories and modern public practices.
Israel’s state rabbinical courts are religious judicial institutions with statutory authority, especially over Jewish marriage and divorce. The Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law of 1953 establishes exclusive…
Shakshuka is a comforting pan of eggs poached in a sauce made from tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and warming spices. Its roots are commonly associated with North Africa, and variations are enjoyed across the Mediterranean and…
Shimon HaTzadik, or Simeon the Just, is a revered Jewish figure associated in rabbinic tradition with the Second Temple and the Great Assembly. The best-known saying attributed to him in Pirkei Avot teaches that the world rests on…
Sukkot begins on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, following Yom Kippur. The Torah connects the festival with the Israelites’ wilderness journey and with the annual harvest. Its most visible sign is the sukkah, a…
Tefillin are a pair of black leather boxes attached to leather straps and traditionally used during weekday morning Jewish prayer. Inside are handwritten parchment passages from the Torah, including verses from Exodus and…
Tefillin are small black leather boxes containing handwritten biblical passages, worn during weekday morning prayers in many Jewish traditions.
The Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv is one of the best-known historic synagogues in the city. Standing on Allenby Street, it has long been associated with civic memory, religious life and the urban story of Hebrew Tel Aviv. Even people…
Yeshiva University occupies a distinctive place in American Jewish life. Its roots go back to 1886, when a small yeshiva on New York’s Lower East Side began to grow into an institution that would combine Torah study with academic and…
Zionism developed in the late nineteenth century as a Jewish national movement responding to antisemitism and debates about identity and political sovereignty.
The religious, cultural and historical connection between Jewish communities and the Land of Israel long predates modern nationalism. Jewish prayers, holidays and writings kept Jerusalem and Zion central to collective memory. In…
The Hebrew word chai, written חי, means “life”. Its letters, chet and yod, have numerical values of eight and ten. Together they give eighteen, which explains why gifts and charitable donations are sometimes made in multiples of 18.…