HowToDoThings.com Recent Judaism Articles

How To Excel in Your Studies

Learner — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:19:40 -0600

This 'How To' article would help different people in different ways as its content will be subjective to how you interpret excellence. If the reader wants to know the secret to scoring A's in his or her exam, it might lie here; if the reader intends to improve his or her studying technique, it might lie here as well. And if the reader wants to know the many ways to practice the virtue of excellence, it might lie here. Therefore, I invite you to read on.

How To Plan a Trip to the Holy Land

nancylapid — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:37:27 -0500

Do you keep putting off your visit to Israel, as if it's a trip you can make only once in a lifetime? Are you intending to go someday when your kids are grown, or your life is in better order, or maybe after you've won the lottery? I'm here to tell you: Stop putting off your first trip. Go this year! Here's how to plan it.

How To Keep the Sabbath

allyehrman — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:03:40 -0500

The Bible teaches us that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. We too follow in God's path and spend six days developing the world and on the seventh we refrain from any physically creative activities. This includes driving, writing, cooking, turning on electricity etc. etc. The goal is to make the Sabbath a day of spiritual bliss. How is this done?

How To Know If Food is Kosher

W.J.592 — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 13:40:00 -0600

Perhaps now, more than any other time in history, it is easy to determine what foods in the supermarket are kosher. With pre-printed packaging, it is as easy as reading the label!

How To Avoid Being Seen as a Shiksa

Vanessa264 — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 11:15:00 -0600

Shiksa is Yiddish slang for a woman who is not Jewish. Shiksa is always pejorative, and is most often used in reference to a non-Jewish woman who is partnered with a Jewish man. The pejorative aspect of the word is probably due with the fact that according to traditional Jewish law, someone is considered Jewish only if he was born of a Jewish mother. So in essence, the shiksas are depleting the stock of available Jewish men. That being said, Reform Judaism has softened this stance and considers the child of one Jewish parent Jewish if he was raised as a Jew. Because dating and marrying outside of the faith is as common as it is these days, the existence of shiksas is a fact of life. Here are some tips on how you can avoid being seen as a shiksa in the worst sense of the word:

How To Make Hanukkah Crafts

Staff468 — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:22:00 -0600

Creating Hanukkah crafts is a wonderful way to spend some creative time together with your child. Whenever possible, turn first to your child for unique ideas of his own. There's really nothing more exciting for a child than generating an idea and following it through until completion. And as you come up with whatever it takes to make his suggestions fly (sometimes literally), it's a reminder for you that the point of making Hanukkah crafts with your child is really not the finished product at all, but the process.

How To Play Dreidel

Staff468 — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 14:30:00 -0600

Playing the dreidel game is a Jewish tradition that the entire family can enjoy together during Hanukkah. If you don't already have a dreidel, visit our article about making a dreidel. Here's how to play the dreidel game.

Players divide the "gelt" (money) into even portions. You can use really any countable substance for the gelt. Common choices include candy, pennies and chocolates.
Each player takes a turn. The first thing a player does during a turn is add a specified amount of gelt into the "kupah" (equivalent to "the pot" in poker) in the center of the players.
Then that player spins the dreidel. What happens next depends upon which of the dreidel's four Hebrew letters lands face-up.

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How To Buy a Menorah

Staff468 — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 12:51:00 -0600

The menorah is the central religious symbol of Hanukkah and such a fundamental symbol in Jewish faith that it appears on Israel's coat of arms.

The origin of the menorah's form is a subject of debate. Some say that the inspiration was the burning bush that Moses saw on Mt. Sinai, while others believe that the inspiration was astronomical, with the branches of the original seven-candle menorah corresponding to the seven planetary bodies familiar to people in that period.

How To Understand Hanukkah

Beth141 — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 17:47:00 -0600

Hanukkah is coming and that means... what does that mean? If you're not of the Jewish faith, Hanukkah may mean only a few things: dreidels, menorahs, that Adam Sandler song (you know the one), and the ongoing question: "How the heck do you spell that?" Hannu-...Han-...wait, isn't there a "ch" in there? If you are of the Jewish faith yourself, maybe you didn't grow up knowing all the ins and outs of the holiday. Okay, if pushed, you might be able to go into the story of the Maccabees who fought someone, at some time, and...what was it again?