In the beginning of the Bible, the tree of life represents what sets humans apart from divinity – but other texts use the symbol to depict mankind’s relationship with God.
Simchat Torah celebrations in Netanya, Israel, in 2013.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
Simchat Torah is about more than beginning to read the Torah all over again. It’s about the need to reexamine what we think we know, over and over again.
An Ultra Orthodox Jewish man in Israel harvests wheat ahead of the holiday of Shavuot.
AP Photo/Ariel Schalit
The Jewish festival of Shavuot dates back to biblical times, but its significance has changed over the centuries.
Sara Hurwitz, Amy Eilberg, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Sally J. Priesand, each of whom was the first female rabbi in her branch of Judaism.
Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives
Carole B. Balin, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
Rabbi Sally J. Priesand’s ordination by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion opened the doors to hundreds of women becoming rabbis.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at Mount Meron in northern Israel on April 29, 2021, as they celebrate the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer.
Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images
A scholar of Jewish history explains why the annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel has such power and meaning.
A condolence message and candles for the victims of a stampede during a Jewish ultra-Orthodox mass pilgrimage to Mount Meron, projected on a wall of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images
The Lag BaOmer pilgrimage, in which 45 people died recently, takes place each year to what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
Vice President Kamala Harris swears in Sen. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Senate Television via AP
In choosing a Hebrew Bible belonging to a civil rights leader, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, Sen. Jon Ossoff appeared to be sending out a message on the strong historic ties between Black people and Jews.
An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is arrested by Israeli security forces for resisting efforts to shut down a synagogue in the Me’a She’arim neighborhood in Jerusalem, April 17, 2020.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images
Joyce Dalsheim, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
Persecution is central to Jewish collective memory. So when armed police entered ultra-Orthodox areas of Jerusalem to close synagogues due to COVID-19, some residents reacted with fear and suspicion.
The Jewish ritual of bar mitzvah. which marks a 13-year-old young man’s assumption of religious and legal obligations under Jewish law.
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The Jewish coming-of-age ritual of bar mitzvah evolved to its current form during the time of Enlightenment, when Jewish families feared losing their traditions.
All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Carolyn Fitzpatrick