The word amen is a liturgical response to hearing someone else recite a blessing or certain prayers. The Hebrew root of amen, aleph-mem-nun (נמא), is shared with the word emunah, meaning faith or belief. Reciting amen is thus an indication that the speaker affirms the truth of what was said, an indication reflected in its common English translation as “verily” or “truly”...

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. “What food might this contain?” the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap...

The Jewish calendar is really two calendars in one. The civil year and New Year begin in September, the month of Tishre. The religious year begins with the month of Nissan, March or April. The first month of the civil calendar falls on the seventh month of the religious calendar...

I have always been struck by that passage where Jesus wept because as we keep reading, we see that Jesus knew not only that Lazarus would be raised on the last day but also that Jesus would raise Lazarus later that day!...

When I lived in Paris, I was in the 14th arrondissement (division) of the city. I lived approximately four city blocks from the Montparnasse cemetery. This cemetery is the second largest in Paris and consists of 47 acres. It almost had a park-like atmosphere and hundreds of people walked through the cemetery daily--including me...