Many interesting words come up in the context of the High Holidays. (Many of the paytannim enjoyed using rare words!) I will discuss a few

The Torah gives very little explanation of the holiday that we call today Rosh HaShanah. The Torah calls it only “yom teruah” (in Parshat Pinchas)

It is routinely taken for granted that the concept of tikun olam is integral to Aleinu. It turns out that this is probably not the

During the haftarah reading of parshat Va’era, we are all jarred when this king’s name is read with that middle “R.” What is going on

This phrase is used as a description of God at Psalms 68:5. From here, it made its way into the Baruch Kel Elyon song. But

We are all used to reciting this prayer (Psalm 30) around the time of Baruch She’amar. The recital of Baruch She’amar in daily Shacharit is

This prayer begins with a statement that God places “chevlei sheina” on our eyes. But what exactly does this term mean? In our printed siddurim,

I had always wondered what view of dreams was reflected in biblical Hebrew. My initial thought was that Ḥ-L-M might have derived from Ḥ-L-H (sick).

My daughter’s recent engagement led me to thinking about these words. The biblical word chatan means both son-in-law and bridegroom. But most scholars believe that

These words appear many times in the Torah. Since they often appear in the same sentence, it is appropriate to address them together. As to

One of my favorite examples of wordplay in Tanach is at Gen. 18:23, where Avraham is negotiating with God about the destruction of Sodom. Avraham