Rabbi Heshie Hirth passed away on Shabbat Shuva, September 11, after being in a coma since suffering a stroke during heart surgery in the early months of 2020.

Rabbi Hirth established the Yeshiva K’tana of Passaic in 1987, which started with an initial class of 50 students. He served

As the Biden administration steps up its efforts to bolster the Palestinian Authority (PA), Palestinians seem to be increasingly losing faith in their leaders.

The Palestinian public also appears to be losing faith in any peace process with Israel. Many are even saying that they support the annulment of

When Jill Gordon took her 10-year-old daughter to the doctor in Teaneck on Sept. 12 for a stomach problem, she never expected for them to end up cowering in the bathroom to protect themselves from an antisemitic attacker.

The pair were already in the bathroom at Riverside Pediatrics in Teaneck

On August 30, Academies at GBDS welcomed back its students for a new year at school. This school year marks Academies at GBDS’s 36th anniversary, a milestone that is not only a blessing, but also a reminder of the perseverance of the Jewish people and the role that Jewish education has in the future of

In the glorious song with which Moses addresses the congregation, he invites the people to think of the Torah—their covenant with God—as if it were like the rain that waters the ground so that it brings forth its produce:

Let my teaching drop as rain,

My

A Jewish Table vs. Achashverosh’s Table

If you are like me, sometimes you neglect to sing zemirot and include a dvar Torah at Shabbat and Yom Tov meals. While we have a long list of excuses, I, for one, am resolving this Tishrei season to put an end to this bad habit. The following

On Beitza 19a, Rava encounters a group of talmidei chachamim, namely the “rabbanan devei Rav,” interpreting a troublesome brayta detailing a dispute between a tanna kamma and Rabbi Shimon Shezuri. The tanna kamma says that if a vessel was ritually impure before Yom Tov, one may not immerse it during twilight. One may not immerse this

Parashat Ha’azinu

The haftarah that we read this Shabbat is one that is not read every year, but only when there is a Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, i.e., when Parashat Ha’azinu is not read on Shabbat Shuva. This year, therefore, I have the opportunity to share some thoughts about this

What does a speaker do when he wants to get the attention of an audience that’s not so interested? A few years ago, New Jersey State Assemblyman Gary Schaer was addressing some wealthy real estate investors. When he got up to speak, some were talking while others were looking at their phones. Their actions were saying, “Who is this

Jewish holidays celebrate framing moments of national destiny. Pesach recalls our liberation from Egypt while Shavuot re-dramatizes our selection at Sinai. By contrast, the holiday of Sukkot is more internationally flavored. Similar to Pesach and Shavuot, it is tagged to a national memory—Divine protection of the Jewish desert

A father set out one day to teach his young daughter a powerful lesson. When she woke up in the morning he took her in front of a mirror and asked her, “What do you see?”

She smiled and answered, “I see myself!”

He then took her to the window, and asked her,

The commandment to sit in the sukkah is rather unusual. We fulfill the mitzvah of “You shall live in the sukkah for seven days” (Vayikra 23:42) by simply eating meals and sleeping in the sukkah. Since when is sleeping a mitzvah? Sleeping is a lack of consciousness; a necessary prerequisite to serving God, certainly, but a mitzvah? And