Reading can cause many different emotions. For some people, beginning a new book produces excitement about where the narrative will take them. Then there’s the pleasure of the plot itself, watching ...

We are living through a period of plagues, floods, wildfires and other biblical events. In the Torah, such catastrophes often follow poor human behavior — times when we ignore the word of God. You can ...

Simchat Torah. It’s the Jewish holiday that comes after all the important Jewish holidays — Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot — this time of year. At the end of one Torah-reading cycle and the ...

(RNS) — A few years ago, the Conservative congregation of 900 families overlooking Lake Michigan took on a challenge. This past year 210 laypeople stepped up. HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (RNS) — Growing up in ...

Joseph's bones were taken with the Jews when they left Egypt, the start of a tradition that we do not move on without our heroes. And Ran Gvili, who parallels the martyrs of Beitar, will be buried ...

Several thousand pilgrims today participated in the first revival of the ancient custom of “Hakhel,” the public reading of the Torah during the Succoth holiday of the Sabbatical year. The custom, ...

(JTA) — When Alyza Lewin became a bat mitzvah in 1977, the fact that she had a ritual ceremony at all was still relatively revolutionary in Orthodox circles. But she took the rite of passage a step ...

For as long as I can remember, the sound of Torah reading has carried something timeless. Whether it was a weekday minyan or a crowded Shabbat morning, those ancient melodies always connected me to ...

North Suburban Beth El’s Team Torah program recruited their 200th Torah reader this past summer. While most new readers are presented with a cookie at the bimah upon their first reading, the 200th ...

Before she had language to understand herself as a transgender person, Joy Ladin did not feel represented or at ease in the physical world she inhabited. While reading the Torah as a child, Ladin ...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – The Chisuk Emuna synagogue in Harrisburg is receiving a new Torah, a rare occurrence that happens only once every few decades. Most of the local synagogue’s Torah scrolls are ...