Really pleased to receive author copies of the new Ukrainian translation of my first book! Thanks to translators Anton Kotenko and Oleksandra Nadtoky and all the great people at Dukh i Litera.

Brief video describing the life and work of Don Yitshak Abravanel (Abarbanel), a great Portuguese-Spanish Jewish thinker and leader.  Part of The Jews of Sepharad series.   Click here to view books by Dr. Abramson (remarkably amazing Chanukah reading)

This was a wonderful evening.

Brief video on the life and times of Abraham Senior, important 15th-century Spanish Jewish financier. Suggestions for Chanukah Reading! Click here to order.  

Kindling the candles for the Festival of Lights, we bless G-d for performing miracles of freedom “in those days, in this time.” The commentators have long resolved the jarring use of apparently non-parallel prepositions: in those days, meaning long ago, but in this time, meaning at the present  point in the calendar year. For survivors…

This lecture turned out nicely, I think. If you haven’t heard Rabbi Ya’akov Trump, you’re in for a treat–skip past my part to about 26:00 for the good stuff. A century from now, people will say, “Trump, Trump…wasn’t there also a President by that name?”

YouTube sent me this gif for earning 10,000 subscribers. Really grateful that so many people enjoy Jewish history!

Really looking forward to this class. Thanks to Rabbi Ya’akov Trump for designing the flyer!

Brief overview of the life and work of Abraham Zacuto, important Jewish Iberian astronomer and historian. Now available: revised edition of The Kabbalah of Forgiveness.  Click here for more information.  

Aish Kodesh scholar Daniel Reiser holding a copy of my new book. Like Shakespeare holding a copy of one’s sonnets. Thank you!

The Piaseczno Rebbe, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira, refused to dignify the Nazis by naming them in his wartime sermons in the Warsaw Ghetto. In a rare moment of transparency, perhaps motivated by anguish over the suffering of his Hasidim, the Rebbe briefly suspended his euphemistic terminology with a curt third-person reference in his drashah on Parashat…

This was a huge amount of fun. If you are into Duties of the Heart, I think you will like this lecture! The video has a reference to Despacito by The Maccabeats, link provided below. Enjoy in good health!

I’ve been selected as a presenter to speak about my latest book, The Kabbalah of Forgiveness: The Thirteen Levels of Mercy in Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s Tomer Devorah (The Date Palm of Devorah). Please check out the Limmud’s Facebook Page or website for more information (the full schedule and list of presenters will be live in December). Hope…

The Jewish Biography as History series at the Young Israel of Bal Harbour continues this week with a presentation on Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, a major figure whose bold and heroic leadership rescued the Jewish people from the threat of national oblivion in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century. Lectures…

I’m so glad that so many of you decided to download my latest book, “The Kabbalah of Forgiveness: The Thirteen Levels of Mercy in Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s Date Palm of Devorah (Tomer Devorah).”  I’m also very grateful that many of you have found this work meaningful, especially in the rare moment of the season of…

This lecture serves as an introduction to the Rishonim, a body of Rabbinic scholars associated with the 9th through the 15th centuries of the common era. Part of the Essential Lectures in Jewish History series. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.