The Library

Question of the Week I see a lot of contradictions in the way the Rebbe is portrayed. He is sometimes described as the founder of Jewish outreach, focusing his energies on bringing lost and ignorant Jews back to the fold. But then when you analyze his writings and ...

Today is Rosh Chodesh Tamuz; a day of renewal, as well as the Yartzeit of Yosef Hatzadik's birth and passing. In Babylonian tradition, Tamuz was a god that came to symbolize the death of nature in the heat of summer, and they named the month of "Tamuz" after this god. Sa...

The Zohar (in Chelek Beis, pg 78b) writes that Yakov Avinu took the months of Nissan and Iyar for himself (hence Yetziyas Mitzrayim, Kabbalas Hatorah), and Eisav took the months of Tammuz and Av for himself (and hence, the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha Be'av), but only the fir...