And yet, as the legend goes, the oil burned for eight days, giving them time to clean, repair, and rededicate the Temple. The ...

The family of Mattathias became known as the Maccabees, from the Hebrew word for “hammer,” because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. The name Hasmoneans refers to the ...

The saga of my Jewish conversion began twenty-five years ago, when I got engaged to my first husband. He’d grown up in an Orthodox family, and his parents, my future in-laws, were devastated that he ...

In the first century of our era there were many sects and schools in Jewish society. We hear about the Essenes, of course, the Jews of Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls, who separated themselves from the ...