Author Archives: alreguelajat

Tevilat Kelim is the halachah that regulates the immersion of culinary utensils in a mikveh. It originates in the Torah, in Numbers 31, when God commands Moses to wipe out the Midianites, a pagan people who were spreading their idolatry … Seguir leyendo →

It is written in the Talmud, in tractate Eruvin 13B: “Rabbi Abba reported that Shmuel said: For three years, Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagreed. These (Beit Shammai) said: Halacha is in accordance with our opinion, and those (Beit Hillel) … Seguir leyendo →

Shabbetai Tzvi ben Mordechai was born in Smyrna on July 23, 1626, the 9th of Av on the Jewish calendar. He studied Talmud at the Yeshiva of Rabbi Joseph Escapa. He was not drawn to the study of Talmud, but … Seguir leyendo →

Midrash is the way sages explain difficult-to-understand biblical texts. One of the best-known is the Midrash Rabbah, composed of 10 collections, one of which is the Midrash Eicha, or Lamentations. Poem 24R of this midrash, based on Jeremiah 31:15 and … Seguir leyendo →

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born in Prague, today the capital of the Czech Republic and then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents were middle-class Ashkenazi Jews. His father, Hermann Kafka, emigrated from Ozek, a Czech town with a significant … Seguir leyendo →

Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE) was the king of Macedonia from 336 BCE until his death. During his reign, which lasted only thirteen years, he expanded his empire to include countries as distant as India and Egypt, including the Land … Seguir leyendo →

Professor David Biale comments that, since there is no central authority in Judaism, many popular beliefs, simply because they are mentioned in rabbinic literature, seem to have the approval of the rabbis, as is the case with magic and the … Seguir leyendo →

Sigismund Schlomo Freud (1856–1939) was born in Freiberg, Moravia, part of the Austrian Empire. His parents were originally from Galicia, a region in northwestern Ukraine. His family moved to Vienna when he was three years old. Freud lived in that … Seguir leyendo →

“Tsene-rene” is a book written in Yiddish by Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi, around 1590. The text is based on the structure of the “parashot” of the Torah, the weekly sections into which the Torah is divided, mixed with texts from … Seguir leyendo →

Glückel of Hameln was born in Hamburg in 1646. When she was twelve, her parents engaged her to Haym of Hameln, whom she married two years later. Over time, Haym became a successful businessman in Hamburg. They had fourteen children, … Seguir leyendo →