Talmud of America
My recent posts..."Talmud of America" Pardes Institute, a non-denominational study center based in Jerusalem, offers immersive Jewish learning around the world. One project is “Talmud of America,” which aims to illuminate and interpret, through Jewish eyes, some...
Twilight Zone
My recent posts...Twilight Zone בֵּין הַשְׁמָשׁוֹת Bein hashemashot, literally, between the suns. בֵּין הַשְׁמָשׁוֹת A twilight zone of time, or rather, out of time, between one day and the next. Our sages of old used this concept to explain certain miraculous...
When to Pray Yizkor
My recent posts...My edited comments from this past final day of Pesach. Ellie’s mom, Julia Helfman, died on her 95th birthday, December 24, 2025. This was the first Yizkor service Ellie feels obligated to attend. She said, “I’m now a member of a club I was not eager...
Timing
It had become a Kremer household Pesach tradition, or rather, a pre-Pesach tradition. Somewhere within a couple of days prior the first seder and noon on erev Pesach, something would go awry in the kitchen.
Time: the sanctified and the quotidian
Other than Shabbat, we begin our holy days with a blessing, a bracha: shehecheyyanu…laz’man ha-ze. We thank Adonai for enabling us to be here now, reminding us to be present in that hallowed period
To close out of sacred time, a ceremony of havdala, “separation.” We bid farewell to Shabbat, to a festival, thanking God for those hours or days and for differentiating between the sanctified and the quotidian.
On Sunday night, we will pass from Pesach to chol, a regular weekday, and we can eat whatever we wish! I hope that we can all appreciate what made these Pesach days fulfilling, even as we look forward to how we will make them even more special next year. (Jerusalem, anyone?)
Shabbat shalom/chag sameiach/shavua tov!