Kriyat Habonim Blog
Kislev Rosh Chodesh Knowledge Bomb
Shalom Chaverim, Today I’m writing about something that I’m sure you wouldn’t regularly contemplate on or discuss whether it is good or bad - NOSTALGIA. Now you see, here is the dilemma. Some people will look at this word with a sense of happiness. They...
The Jewish Ethiopian Festival of Sigd
Today is Sigd, a significant religious holiday for Ethiopian Jews based upon the idea of repentance. To many Jews, Sigd is most comparable to Yom Kippur, due to it being a day of reflection, penitence and criticism. Despite these similarities, the major distinction...
Cheshvan Rosh Chodesh Knowledge Bomb
Growing up I was always aware of a family story that sounded frankly bizarre: our ancestors, when fleeing Eastern Europe at the end of the 19thcentury, had supposedly got on a ship thinking it was headed for New York, but when the ship later docked in Dublin they...
Sukkot
The festival of sukkot can be interpreted in different ways depending on which branch of Judaism we identify with. Traditionally, sukkot commemorates the years that Jews spent in the desert on their way to the Promised Land, and celebrates the way in which God...
Yom Kippur
This week concludes the 10 days of atonement in the Jewish calendar, culminating in Yom Kippur. Whether one practices cultural, reform, or orthodox Judaism, Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar and most of us conform in some way to its laws and...
Benjy’s Speech at the Vigil for Pittsburgh
A Boger of Habonim Dror, went to the vigil for the victims of the Pittsburgh Massacre. You can read below his inspiring speech.
Holocaust Memorial Day
The events of the Holocaust clearly exposes dehumanisation on both sides in its purest sense, that of the Nazis and of the Jews. Whether it is subconscious or not, today we as humans dehumanise the Nazis as if they weren't themselves part of the same human race. We...
I think we’re on shnat?? – HDUK/B SHNOG #1
It’s one week in, and Shnat Club 7 are already taking to kibbutz life like a butternut squash to a roasting tin. We’ve eaten more vegetables in the past week than Daniel Birtles, the Vegan guru himself, has had in the last 2 years. When we aren’t being shushed by...
Guilty until proven innocent?
This coming week’s parsha is VaYikra (“and He called”) and is the first parsha of Leviticus. The parsha lays out the reasons one must make a sacrifice (i.e. for peace and sins) but the one most interesting to me the laws of “guilt offerings”. These are offerings that...
The Manual of the Tabernacle and Movement?
The past week’s parsha is Pekudei and is the final parsha of the Book of Exodus. This week’s parsha spends a lot of time acting as a manual. It is not a manual for how we should live our lives but rather how we should go about building the Tabernacle and the Tent of...