Tag Archives: Rabbi Avraham bar Chiya

How Sephardic Jews Shaped the World

In this class, we embark on a one-thousand year journey to uncover how Sephardic Jews transformed the world and played an instrumental role in major global movements, revolutionary scientific discoveries, and even the establishment of the United States of America!

We explore how Sephardic Jewish communities differ from Ashkenazi Jewish communities, and which unique trends and thoughts characterized Sephardic Judaism throughout history.

Please see also ‘What Does It Really Mean to be Sephardi?’

For the class about Feminism and Judaism that was referred to, see here.

On the Rambam and the Karaites, see here.

On the Donmeh and the Father of Modern Turkey, see here.

For more on the Zohar’s prophecy of Seven Continents, see here.

For more on the Zohar’s prophecy of the special year 1648, see here.

For short bios on the great figures discussed in this class:

Avraham bar Chiya haNasi
Ibn Ezra
Maimonides
Abraham Zacuto
Chaim Vital
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
Yehuda Alkali
Moses Montefiore

The Forgotten Reason For Fasting on the Tenth of Tevet

Today we mark one of the “minor” fast days of the Jewish calendar: Asarah b’Tevet, the Tenth of Tevet. Technically, in ancient times there were three separate fasts instituted on the eighth, ninth, and tenth days of Tevet. However, because fasting three days in a row is not practical for most people, the three were combined into a single day. None of this is coincidence, of course, and there is a profound connection between the “three” fasts. First, a recap: what does each of these fasts commemorate?

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