By Yaakov Mascetti*
The wanderings of the people of Israel in the desert should not be considered as a mere stage in a long process that ends with the arrival in the Promised Land and the conquest thereof: the desert …
By Benedetto Carucci Viterbi
Bemidbar/Numbers: only in the desert – a paradoxical place of words and silence without distractions – it is possible to be counted without being just a simple number.…
By Benedetto Carucci Viterbi*
“If you walk…” (Leviticus 26,3). The real meaning of a journey is in the journey rather than in the destination.
*Benedetto Carucci Viterbi is a rabbi.…
By Daniel Leisawitz*
This past Tuesday, President Obama returned to the world stage with a speech and conversation at the Seeds & Chips Conference on food and technology in Milan, Italy. Although the contents of Mr. Obama’s remarks were non-partisan, …
By Yaakov Mascetti*
When Abraham undergoes ritual circumcision, he does so because of a Divine commandment – through the ritual he enters the covenant, and once he’s in he introduces every male in his household, circumcising the flesh of their …
By Daniela Fubini*
Soon after arriving in Israel, we learn that we must be ready to any question asked in the most random places and by the most random strangers. At point blank, you are typically asked where you are …
Guido Vitale
“Jew is a funny word; the comedian Louis C. K. once said, because ‘Jew’ is the only word that is the polite thing to call a group of people and the slur for the same group”. (Mark Oppenheimer …
By Susanna Calimani*
My mother’s tradition wants it raw, ground with an old grinder that only lately has been replaced with a newer and rust-free one. It is made with apples, dates, raisins, almonds, walnuts and a bit of wine. …
By Yaakov Mascetti*
When Rabban Gamliel states, in the Mishnah tractate of Pesachim 10:5, that “in every generation a person must regard himself as though he personally had gone out of Egypt,” traditionally one tends to bend the accepted conception …
By Daniela Fubini*
I found myself recently in a field of wheat, during a quiet walk over the weekend. The wheat field was already partially harvested, and on the ground here and there I could see and pick up broken …