Reading the Book of Ruth on Shavuot

Alongside the episode of giving the Torah, on Shavuot we also read the seemingly less spectacular story of Ruth.

However, even without a smoking mountain or the Ten Commandments, Ruth is still a powerful tale of embracing Judaism.

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Flowers on shavuot

Florists in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world will be busy next week in the run-up to Shavuot. Why do we celebrate the festival of receiving of the Torah and of bringing the first fruits (bikkurim) to the Temple by decorating synagogues with flowers?

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Visiting the sick

When we're sick, we need to feel that others care and are ready to give of their time to us.

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The ban on tattoos

My sister-in-law recently posted on Facebook a picture of woman's arm bearing a black Jewish star surrounded by fire.

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Not eating meat with fish

One of the lesser-known donts of Jewish law is not to eat meat and fish together. Religious people will avoid eating them at the same time, but will have them at the same meal, though usually with a break between them.

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Saying "Half Hallel" on the last days of Pesach

On the last days of Pesach, we recite only half of Hallel (Psalms 113-8), even though we are celebrating awesome miracles - the splitting of the Red Sea and the end of Egyptian tyranny over Israel.

Why this subdued commemoration of such a liberating event? The Babylonian describes the angels as bursting out in song after the splitting of the Red Sea (Megillah 10b). God, however, rebukes them

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Searching for the afikoman

Where do kids get off stealing the afikoman and then demanding a gift for its return? The Talmud (Pesachim 109a) recommends taking away the matzot to keep the children awake. Later commentators suggest allowing children to hide the afikoman and giving them presents as a way to keep them involved in the Seder until the very end.

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Lighting shabbat candles

The mitzvah to light Shabbat candles derives from the Talmud: Rabbi Yehuda says, "Lighting a candle for Shabbat is not optional and is way of honouring the Shabbat" (Shabbat 25b).

Before electricity, Shabbat candles ensured that there would be some light in the house during the Shabbat and that no one would sit in darkness.

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Facing East in Prayer

"My heart is in the east (mizrach) and I am at the end of the west." So lamented Yehuda Halevi, the greatest medieval Jewish poet.

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Cutting a boy's hair

The custom waiting to cut a boy's hair until he is three and having a party to celebrate - upshirin in Yiddish or halakeh in Arabic - symbolises the end of infancy and the start of doing mitzvot. The rabbis see three as the age when a child's parents should introduce him to the world of Torah.

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Checking eggs for blood

Although we rarely find blood spots in eggs from supermarkets today, the custom to check every egg is still entrenched in observant Ashkenazi homes.

The Talmud (Chullin 64b) prohibits eating an egg with a blood spot if it might have been fertilised. But most chickens in industrial farms never see a rooster. Any blood spots in their eggs are from tissue irregularities.

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Throwing bread at hamotzi

Years ago I found myself at a Shabbat table in Jerusalem where the challah was actually thrown to the guests around the table. I was shocked. Since when were adults allowed to throw food? 

Rabbi Yosef Karo author of the Shulchan Aruch explicitly forbids hurling bread. However, he also says that one should not place it directly into another's hands, for that is how one treats mourners.

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Learning bekiyut and iyun

What makes a great sage?  Breadth or depth? Loads of knowledge or penetrating insight? In the words of the Talmud, "What is preferable?  Sinai or oker harim?" Sinai means a scholar with an encyclopedic mind, as though he/she had been present at the giving of the Torah.

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Tu bishvat seder

Tu Bishvat, the New Year for trees, has implications for when to give tithes and other agricultural offerings but otherwise the day was not very widely noticed.

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Gelilah: rolling the sefer

After hagbah, the one who lifted the Torah sits down with it and the someone else steps forward to do gelilah. This involves rolling the two ends of the Torah scroll together to meet in the middle, then dressing the Torah in its velvet robes and silver breastplate, bells and pointer.   

Gelilah has a reputation as a second-class mitzvah, though this is thoroughly undeserved.

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Hagbah: Lifting the Sefer

Hagbah is one of the most dramatic and potentially heart-stopping moments in the synagogue service. After the Torah reading, the heavy scrolls are raised high in the air for all to see.

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Sanctifying the moon

Sanctifying the new moon, Kiddush Levanah, is a prayer recited once every month sometime during its first half - ideally at the conclusion of Shabbat. You should be able to actually see most of the moon. People go outside and bless God for "creating the Heavens… setting for them laws and times...

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Fast of silence

A "speech fast" (ta'anit dibbur) is one of the more radical tools in the arsenal of self-improvement developed by Jewish pietists over the centuries. Words, the medium that most express our divine uniqueness, are so easily devalued. Empty chatter is everywhere, but real conversation is rare.

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Lighting candles outside

In Jerusalem, most people light their Chanucah lamps outside their front doors or at the entrance to apartment buildings. They place them in pretty glass-fronted boxes, which allow the lights to be seen from the road, while protecting them from wind and rain. 

Halachic sources teach that we should, preferably, light outside the front door on the left.

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Spinning the dreidel

Dreidel is a four-sided top used to play a children's gambling game on Chanucah. Each side is inscribed with one of the letters nun, heh, gimmel, shin, standing for nes gadol hayah sham, "there was a great miracle there". In Israel shin for sham is replaced by peh for poh, meaning here - the miracle was "here". 

This is how you play.

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