Is it possible to do all your reflections about the previous year on a single day? And on a day when you do not even eat due to all the sins you committed? Of course not, according to the Jewish ...

The Alter Rebbe – the Baal HaTanya –in Likutei Torah explains the month of Elul with the following metaphor: The king’s usual place is in the capital city, in the royal palace. Anyone wishing to ...

Like countless folks, I have often associated the month of Elul with increased hustle and bustle. After all, this interval is when children return to school, yeshivot fill up after summer break, and ...

The new month of Elul has begun, the month prior to beginning the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Elul represents the spiritual alarm clock that reminds us of the period we are entering, the shift ...

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With the month of Elul’s arrival this Shabbat, marking the weeks leading us into the High Holy Days, we are once again reminded that there should be more to one’s daily routine than tracking the ...

After Tisha B’Av (observed on Aug. 11 this year), most of us think about the upcoming High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Those holidays will be very late this year — Rosh Hashanah starts ...

Get any of our free daily email newsletters — news headlines, opinion, e-edition, obituaries and more. Do you know the word, Elul? Elul is the name of the current Hebrew month on the Jewish calendar.

‘The Levitic kohanim (the entire tribe of Levi), shall have no portion or inheritance with Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel … the Lord is (Levi’s) inheritance. [Deuteronomy 18:1-2]. What is the ...

Abraham Joshua Heschel published The Earth Is the Lord’s in 1949. In his preface, he writes that, “The story about the life of the Jews in Eastern Europe which has come to an end in our days is what I ...

The Arizal (1534-1572) – the greatest of the Kabbalists – notes that the initial letters of the words “ina l’yado v’samti loch – [G-d] caused [accidental death] to happen to his hand, and I shall ...