Author Archives: Michal Kohane מיכל כהנא

Pesach is a holiday of songs: we make our youngest stand on a chair and sing the ma nishtana; we stay up late into the night singing songs we barely understand (please feel free to share a satisfying explanation to … Continue reading →

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, while we are wrapped in prayers, quivering with remorse, begging forgiveness, and promising to be oh so good in the upcoming year, the high priest faces two “se’irim”, fairy he-goats: … Continue reading →

What do we think about Mozilla’s CEO stepping down?Brendan Eich is widely known for a number of major contributions to the evolution of the Web, including inventing JavaScript and being the co-founder of mozilla.org. Last Thursday he had to step … Continue reading →

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818–1865) was a Hungarian physician of German extraction, (and some say of Jewish heritage). In the mid 1800’ he discovered that the incredibly high mortality rate among the birthing mothers (10-35%) could be drastically cut by the … Continue reading →

Tazria must win the ‘most misunderstood Torah portion’ prize. The word itself is untranslatable, and it follows by laws of “purity” and “impurity”, two more concepts we don’t understand. Then it goes into sacrifices that the child-bearing mother must bring, … Continue reading →

Shmini or “8th” (“eighth”) is the only Torah portion named with a number (not to be confused with “Numbers”, the forth book of the Torah and its opening portion). In this week’s parasha we read about the inauguration of the … Continue reading →

“I have nothing to wear” probably was not one of the things the priests of the Tabernacle used to say in the morning. As we learned earlier in the Book of Exodus, they had carefully designed, beautiful clothing that was … Continue reading →

Leaning against the stone railing of my balcony, I saw him disappear into the crowded streets beneath me, his head still slightly stooped, but his step lighter as if planted with renewed hope. I held my hand up to shadow … Continue reading →

The House of the Rising Sun You might recall this famous folk song sung by its most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the English rock group The Animals. The song was a number one hit in the United … Continue reading →

There is no good way to say it: most of the Book of Leviticus should be skipped. Yes, it includes “love your neighbor as yourself, but much of it makes for hard, unpleasant reading which is mostly irrelevant anyway. All … Continue reading →