שמחה · simcha
A place to learn a little about Jewish life through the things that bring it joy — and to read the columns the community looks forward to each week. The doors are wide: the curious, the allies, and the simply delighted are all welcome.
Short, friendly reads — no background needed. Pick whatever looks warmest.
One day a week, the world goes quiet. Candles Friday at sundown, challah and wine, and a full day to rest, eat, and just be — until three stars come out Saturday night.
Read more →A calendar built for celebrating: Purim costumes and noisemakers, a Sukkah open to the sky, the growing candlelight of Chanukah, the dancing of Simchat Torah.
Read more →A good deed with weight behind it — a commandment and a kindness at once. A duck hidden for a stranger is a tiny one that floats.
Read more →שלום shalom (peace, hello, goodbye) · שמחה simcha (joy) · מזל mazel (luck) · תודה todah (thanks). A few words that carry a lot.
Read more →Giving, as an obligation more than a mood — the Hebrew shares a root with the word for justice. Kindness you do because it is right, not only when you feel like it.
Read more →So much Jewish joy happens over food — braided bread on Friday night, a seder that runs past midnight, a bat mitzvah where the ducks end up on the tables.
Read more →There's a blessing for bread, for wine, for a rainbow, for the first bite of fruit in a season, for seeing an old friend. A tradition of catching the small wonders before they pass.
Read more →The joyful markers of a life — a baby welcomed and named, a bar or bat mitzvah at thirteen, a wedding under the chuppah, and dancing at every one of them.
Read more →read · reflect · kvell
Five columns from five writers — the week's Torah portion, the sparks in an ordinary day, and what Jewish life looks like from where each of them sits. New pieces land here every week.
by Rabbi Ze'ev SmasonRabbi Smason finds the spiritual in the everyday — a bar of chocolate, a laundry basket, the person you are when no one's looking. Three ideas, two quotes, one question, every week.
by Rabbi Eliyahu SchustermanRabbi Schusterman writes from Chabad Intown in Atlanta — the week's portion, the season we're standing in, and the thing it is quietly asking of us. Mirrored here in full, with his permission.
by Miranda LapidesMiranda Lapides on Jewish joy, culture, and the week just gone.
by Rabbi Eli GarfinkelRabbi Eli Garfinkel writes a short d'var Torah most weekdays — a verse, a midrash, a line of Talmud, and what it turns out to be arguing about. Mirrored here with his permission; the recent ones in full, the older ones pointing back to him.
by Uriel ben AvrahamEach week, Uri takes the Torah portion and goes looking for the joy in it — Sarah laughing at ninety, silver trumpets sounded for a simcha, Miriam and the women dancing at the edge of the sea. A parsha, a story from the week, and the joy where the two meet.
We're always welcoming new columnists on Jewish joy — a weekly parsha turn, a spark from the everyday, something new. Pitch a column and join the roster.
the flock's own joy
A duck on a bat mitzvah table, on a seder plate in St. Thomas, at a burger joint in Athens — real moments Quackers have shared. Yours belongs right here too.
Jerusalem, Israel
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
St Thomas, USVI
Newport, Rhode Island, USA
Athens, Greece
New York, USAyour turn
A recipe, a blessing, a photo, a small win — found a duck, or made someone's day? Tell the flock. Every sighting we share started with someone hitting submit.
