Patrilineal Descent

The Reform movement's watershed resolution said you do not need a Jewish mother to be considered a member of the Tribe.

By Dana Evan Kaplan

On March 15, 1983, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the Reform movement’s body of rabbis, passed a resolution prepared by a committee on patrilineal descent entitled “The Status of Children of Mixed Marriages.” The CCAR resolution stated that “we face, today, an unprecedented situation due to the changed conditions in which decisions concerning the status of the child of a mixed marriage are to be made.” Contrary to nearly 2,000 years of tradition, the resolution accepted the Jewish identity of children of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers under certain circumstances.

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A Second Chance for a Jewish Education

By Olivia Gordon for Tablet Magazine

As a child, I hated the classes at my synagogue’s cheder. Now I send my own children there—and I’m falling in love with Sunday school for the first time.

When I first walked my children into Sunday classes at the synagogue in Oxford, England, it felt like coming home after a long journey. The building had changed in the 22 years I’d been away, but the plastic curtains and utilitarian seats in the bleak, post-modern shul were still there.

I never thought I’d come back to Sunday school. Growing up, I hated cheder. Really, truly hated it. One of my clearest memories of childhood is of sitting in the classroom at the Oxford synagogue, aged 7, gazing at that plastic curtain, which separated my small group from the children a year above. “It’s 1986, and I am bored,” I imprinted on my mind, telling myself to remember this uninteresting moment for the rest of my life.

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Jewish Calendar: Solar and Lunar

MyJewishLearning Staff

How the Hebrew calendar works.

The rhythm of Jewish time is determined both by the sun and by the moon. The basic unit of time is naturally enough the day, which is a unit of time determined by the amount of sunlight reaching the earth as it rotates on its axis. In the Western world a day begins in the middle of the night and lasts until the next midnight. Since the standardization of time, days are divided into regular segments of 24 hours.

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Shavuot 101

Shavuot begins after sundown on Saturday night, June 11, 2016

 MyJewishLearning.com    

Shavuot, the “Feast of Weeks,” is celebrated seven weeks after Passover (Pesach). Since the counting of this period (sefirat ha-omer) begins on the second evening of Passover, Shavuot takes place exactly 50 days after the (first) seder. Hence, following the Greek word for “fifty,” Shavuot is also referred to sometimes as Pentecost. Although its origins are to be found in an ancient grain harvest festival, Shavuot has been identified since biblical times with the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

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Shavuos - The Forgotten Holiday

From BeingJewish.com

Everyone has heard of Passover. But what is Shavuos? And why have so few people heard of it? It's also in the Torah, yet it certainly does not have the eminence that Passover holds for most people. Why is it not as well known as Passover?

We all know what Passover is about. That's when we became a nation, in a sense. At any rate, that's when we became the "Nation that the Creator has taken for His very own." But what was it for? Why did the Creator choose us? What purpose did He have in mind?

Well, that's what's Shavuos is all about. While Passover is the time we became the Nation to receive a Mission, it was on Shavuos that we received that Mission.

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What Is Lag Ba'Omer

This year Lag Ba'Omer falls on May 26

By Ariela Pelaia for about.com

Lag Ba'Omer is a minor Jewish holiday that falls between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. "Lag" is a combination of two Hebrew letters: lamed and gimmel. According to Hebrew numerology, lamed stands for the number thirty and gimmel stands for the number three. These two numbers are significant for Lag Ba'Omer because it is celebrated on the 33rd day of Counting the Omer.

The Significance of Lag Ba'Omer

Lag Ba'Omer is a joyous holiday but no one is sure what it celebrates. The Talmud mentions a plague that is thought to have killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva's students during one Omer, and some have suggested that Lag Ba'Omer is celebratory because the plague abated on the 33rd day. Others have suggested that Lag Ba'Omer is connected to Rabbi Akiva's support of Simon Bar Kokhba, a Jewish rebel leader against Rome. The Romans responded to Bar Kokhba's revolt with incredible brutality, but perhaps Lag Ba'Omer was a day when either the Jews won a victory or there was a brief respite from the violence.

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Counting the Omer: Week 3

By Kabbalah Centre

Week 3 - Correcting the Sefira of Tiferet

Road to Transformation:

Get out your running shoes! The Omer is a marathon of cosmic cleansing. Kabbalah teaches us that during these forty-nine days following Pesach, we need to take great care in ridding all negative influences from every area of our lives. After Pesach, we begin anticipating Shavuot, the next holiday and in essence the conclusion of Pesach. Pesach was a free connection. The Omer is the work we do to earn the Light of Pesach and Shavuot. We cleanse ourselves by counting the days of the Omer until Shavuot's arrival. The Omer is counted from the second night of Pesach through the night before Shavuot. It is best to count the Omer at nightfall; however, one may count at any time throughout the night.

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