As a child, the feast of Shavuot was always a unique experience for me. Since we don't currently live in a mainly agricultural society, I had no idea that Shavuot was supposed to be a day of celebrating the new grain harvest. But what I did know was that on this particular holiday, my mother always commissioned two huge loaves of Challah to be made. And by huge, I mean that they were upwards of 10lbs each!    It was always a delight to see these challah loaves, which I customarily saw on Shabbat, in gargantuan form. Then, when we had our celebration service, these loaves would get pa ..read more

The human condition of anticipation and excitement is a universal one. Everyone likes a countdown, right? Imagine what Times Square would look like on New Year's Eve if we didn't. For whatever reason, humans love counting the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, or even seconds until their goal is reached. This is why we have advent calendars, digital countdown clocks, timers, and stopwatches. There are hundreds and thousands of cardboard boxes with tiny doors to cultivate excitement in children when leading up to modern holidays like Christmas and Easter. Entire industries have sprung up arou ..read more

With the mandate to keep leavening out of the territories of Israel for seven days after the feast of Pesach (Leviticus 23:5-6?), it can become a struggle to enjoy the taste of it after a while. So, every year it becomes my mission to find a new way to use matzah. Sometimes they're successful. Sometimes not. Most of the time, we use matzah as a cracker - slathered in butter or cream cheese or jam! Some people like hummus or even a festive bean dip! However you choose to matzah, there are many ways to enjoy it. But when you're -so over- dipping your matzah into different dips, here are some of ..read more

The feast of Pesach is a family affair, with singing and eating, pounding on the table and hunting for the afikomen. It's a rite that all Jewish people experience year after year. But, year after year, it's the same prayers, the same songs, and the same story. Eventually, it can all start to seem ... rote. As the years progress, the Passover Seder can become an obligation instead of a celebration. So, here are a few things you can do to have a memorable and mindful Passover seder this year!    Be aware of what your expectations are for your seder. If you have infants and toddlers, b ..read more

5 During the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Adonai’s Passover. 6 On the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Matzot to Adonai. For seven days you are to eat matzah. 7 On the first day you are to have a holy convocation and you should do no regular work. 8 Instead you are to present an offering made by fire to Adonai for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation, when you are to do no regular work.” - Leviticus 23:5-8?   For centuries, the Jewish people hav ..read more

The feast of Esther is always a fun holiday on the Jewish calendar. As a memorial holiday, we take the time to remember the events that make up the Book of Esther. On the surface, it's every fairytale story come to life: hidden heritage, competition for a crown, espionage, deeds of daring-do and more! But as we take the time to go a little deeper, we can begin to understand the subtle relationship that Esther, her uncle, and the Jewish people had with the God of their Forefathers during this time of exile.   As immigrants into a foreign land, the Children of Israel were merely trying to e ..read more

Lighting the menorah during Hanukkah has always been a huge family affair for the Greenbergs. It's our tradition to give each member of the family their own hanukkiah, the special nine-branched menorah that we use to celebrate Hanukkah, and use each of them, every night. Throughout the years, we've had big menorahs, small ones, metal ones, ceramic ones, fancy ones, and simple ones. Either way, they all have ended up covered in colorful wax, layered in a rainbowed memorial to our shared history.    Each year, I spend the afternoon before the first night of Hanukkah cleaning off the me ..read more

Thanksgiving is defined in the dictionary as an expression of gratitude, especially to God. Throughout the Scriptures, offerings of thanksgiving take many different forms. Between songs and prayers, gifts and dances, feast-days and fasting-days, there are a plethora of ways to be grateful to God in the Bible. In America, we have a national day of thanksgiving, a founding event historically based on the ancient Hebraic holiday of Sukkot - the Feast of Tabernacles.     There is something to be said about gathering together in an attitude of gratitude and experiencing overwhel ..read more

The movie “Fiddler on the Roof” gave Jews around the world a catchphrase that could explain Jewish culture in a nutshell: “There’s a blessing for everything!” Likewise, the Jewish calendar is filled with feasts and celebrations for just about everything, including one named Simchat Torah.  If you look throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, you won’t find mention of Simchat Torah on any of its pages. So, why would the Jewish people make such a big deal about it? Where did it come from? How did it start? These are excellent questions that have a fairly s ..read more

Wrapping up the high holy days is the community celebration of Sukkot, the festival of tabernacles! This fall feast is absolutely one of my favorite times of the year because it's genuinely a party. Yes, there are blessings and liturgies, traditions and rituals, but more than anything there's fun, fellowship, and feasting!    As the mother to a toddler, I believe that the Feast of Booths is one of the best moedim for engaging little ones with the Torah. As a kinetic exercise, our family builds an actual shelter from the ground up, covered in branches and leaves and corn sta ..read more