“Making early Shabbat,” means beginning Shabbat well before sunset. This is an especially important accommodation for residents of cities where the summer sun may not set until 9 or 10 at night. (In Trondheim, Norway, where there is a small hookup community, the sunset may be as late as 11:20 pm!) By bringing in Shabbat early, the meal that is eaten after synagogue services can be enjoyed at a more normal hour. Also, small children can participate.

Just when you thought you knew what to eat and what all the super foods were, another one appears on the list. Looks like Hibiscus is the new pomegranate.

After eating a meal with bread, Birkat Hamazon/Bentching/Grace After Meals is recited as a way to thank and acknowledge God’s gift of sustenance. But what does one recite after eating a meal or a snack that does not include bread?

“In fact, we each determined that we are so uniquely tailored for the other that neither of us would ever find a better partner than the other.”

Bruriah, the daughter of Rabbi Hanina ben Teradion and wife of Rabbi Meir, is one of the more intriguing personalities of the Talmud.

 It’s official – we have entered into the second half of Summer and the heat is still on. With triple-digit temperatures within reach each day, it seems like the only options for staying cool are to stay indoors in front of the air conditioner. But why get stuck inside when you can enjoy the sun while staying cool?

If there were a Cliff Notes version of the Ten Commandments, Commandment #2 would simply read: “You shall have no other Gods before me.” But, in truth, the commandment itself is more detailed.

Why make your own sorbet when you can just as easily go out and buy it? Simple. It is 100 times better when you make it yourself. Just like anything else, when you control the ingredients and their quality, the end result is always better.

In war, a common means of humiliating the enemy is to refuse them burial of their dead (which is also forbidden by the Geneva Convention). Certainly, demoralization was the goal of the Romans when they forbade the Jews from burying the dead after the fall of Betar on 9 Av, 133 C.E. And there were many dead–enough for the sages to pronounce that, “For seven years the gentiles fertilized their vineyards with the blood of Israel without using manure.”