by admin | Dec 26, 2025 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
I was dreaming when I wrote this; forgive me if it goes astray. By the time you read these words, these events may seem distant memories, chased away by once unthinkable circumstances that seem to follow upon one another’s heels at breakneck pace lately. Better, I...
by admin | Aug 30, 2025 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
As the High Holy Days come into view over the horizon, this year my mind is on the sometimes forgotten fall holiday that sneaks in behind: Sukkot (or Succoth, if you hanker for old-timey transliterations that won’t upset your computer’s spell checker). Let’s take a...
by admin | Feb 21, 2025 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
The springtime holidays, Purim and Passover, are linked by four named shabbatot (Sh‘kalim, Zachor, Parah, and haChodesh), each marked with a unique maftir Torah reading and related haftarah which overrules the usual haftarah matched to the weekly parashah. Although...
by admin | Dec 30, 2024 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
The late winter months on the Jewish calendar are marked by two special occasions. First is ‘Asarah b’Tevet, the tenth of Tevet (January 10th this year), one of four annual fasts connected with the destruction of the First Temple, specifically marking the date when...
by admin | Dec 2, 2024 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
Perspective shapes everything. Take Chanukah: Roughly 165 years before the Common Era (BCE), the Greek King Antiochus IV, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, that fraction of Alexander’s empire headquartered in Syria and ruling over the Land of Israel, decided to end...
by admin | Sep 1, 2024 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
As we approach the Fall Holidays this year, we also approach the anniversary of the Simchat Torah Massacre perpetrated by Hamas on the Gaza Envelope communities of Southern Israel and at the Nova music festival, and the yahrzeit of roughly 1200 victims killed in the...
by admin | May 13, 2024 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
From the second night of Passover, we begin counting up each night toward the holiday of Shavuot, defining the period known as the Counting of the Omer, or simply the Omer. Traditionally, this span of the calendar has a tone of mourning to it, though the exact origins...
by admin | Mar 18, 2024 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
The early spring holidays, Purim and Passover, are the epitome, and undoubtedly the inspiration, of that old saw: “they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.” The two holidays celebrate victory over different approaches to destroying the Jews. The Purim story...
by admin | Dec 21, 2023 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
This year (5784) is a leap year on the Jewish calendar. This means we’ll be adding an extra month, First Adar, which begins on February 10th of the secular calendar this year. This extra month will push our holidays from being early in their range (measured against...
by admin | Oct 28, 2023 | Rabbi's Marmon's Blog
Normally, I look ahead to the time period covered by the upcoming Scroll for something to write about. On this occasion, I must address the events of the recent past, and unfolding at present. But words fail. It’s not because there is nothing to say about the terror...
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