When the Jerusalem Temple still stood, the rituals to be performed on Yom Kippur had two central figures and two specific places.

Rosh Hashanah, whose literal translation from Hebrew is the "head" or "beginning" of a new year, is connected to b’reshit, "in the beginning," the first word in the Hebrew Bible that begins the story of Creation. Rosh and Reshit have the same Hebrew consonantal root (reish-alef-shin).

Hiroshima eighty years later    The Hebrew Bible certainly has three main protagonists in its 24 books: God, the people of Israel, and...

When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013, I didn’t need to travel to Rome to feel...

As soon as he was elected Pope, Francis called me on the phone and gave me the email address we could use to keep in touch with each...

Reflections for Pesach and Easter 5785 / 2025 The foundational event that transformed the Benei Israel into a people was their liberation...

The biblical book of Leviticus describes in chapter 25 the society that the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (or Israel) were to form...

Reflections on International Holocaust Remembrance Day Resolution 60/7, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on November...

The universal message of Yom Kippur According to the Talmudic sages, Chapter 19 of the biblical book of Leviticus is one in which most of...

Reflections for the Jewish New Year 5785

Reflections for the Jewish New Year 5784 Rosh Hashanah is a holy day that for Jews epitomizes fundamental aspects of our faith...

10 years of Pope Francis' papacy

Passover and Easter

Reflections for International Holocaust Remembrance Day The Jewish people remember the Shoah many times during the year. Each occasion...

There is a rabbinic text that comes to my mind as the year 2022 draws to a close. In the Babylonian Talmud, in the tractate Sanhedrin...

Yom Kippur 5783 / 2022 Chapter 16 of Leviticus describes the rituals that the High Priest had to perform on the day of Atonement in order...

Rosh Hashanah 5783 Fratelli tutti is the encyclical that better presents the core of France’s thought. I remember the passion that he...

Understanding the meaning of the plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians In Exodus 13:8, the Bible instructs the Hebrew people to...

Beyond all political calculations, the world is facing an objective reality that should weigh heavily on the heart of every thoughtful...

One of the pillars of Israel's faith is the belief that people’s actions are observed and recorded by God in a Book of Remembrance...