The letter CHET is equal to the number eight and is referred to as the letter of Life. The number eight signifies the eight days

The term ‘Rosh Chodesh’ literally means ‘head of the month’, but translates to ‘New Month’ in English. It is the day(s) on which a new

Small pockets of Jews have lived in Asia Minor since the 4th century BCE; yet the heyday of Turkish Jewry began when Ottomans offered refuge

South Africa’s Jews are amongst the wealthiest and most successful in the Jewish world. Theirs is a small and ethnically homogeneous community (mainly Litvaks, numbering

Romanian-speaking Jews are a comparatively recent phenomenon. A few Jews lived in ancient Dacia before the Romans invaded. However, the heyday of Romanian Jewry came

A street called Old Jewry in London’s famous Square Mile is all that remains of the Jews who lived there from 1066 until their expulsion

Ethiopian Jews emerged into the full glare of the modern world in 1984, after centuries of isolation. They arrived in Israel in droves under Operation

Hitbodedut (self-seclusion) is considered by many Chassidim as an essential component of prayer. In being alone with God, and giving voice to their desire for

The word Yizkor means ‘may He remember’ and is the name of a short prayer service held on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) and the

Kaddish is often described as the Jewish prayer for the dead because it is recited by mourners on behalf of their deceased relatives, but this

DIFFERENT NAMES FOR GOD IN THE BIBLE ‘Hear Oh Israel – the Lord our God, the Lord is One’. The Shema prayer is the basic

The Hebrew term for prayer is ‘tefillah’. The word ‘pray’ in Hebrew is ‘pallel’, from the root, pe, lamed lamed, meaning ‘to judge oneself’. Thus