The history of New Year’s Day is a complicated and most interesting one. The short version of it all goes essentially as follows: In ancient Rome, as the calendar was being formed and reformed, it was decided that a month should be named after the Roman God Janus who represented transitions, doors, gates, and beginnings. This month came to be known as January. Given the God that it represented, the first day of the month became the start of the new year, and was a day of festivities in celebration of new beginnings...
Welcome to Daf Aleph, an educational resource on the fundamental topics in Judaism and Jewish philosophy. Covering both timeless subjects, conversations, and debates, as well as more modern and contemporary issues, Daf Aleph was created for anyone interested in learning more about a particular topic in Jewish thought. Founded after the recognition that no such easily-accessible online resource on matters of Jewish thought and machshavah exists, Daf Aleph aims to be just that — a website of Jewish thought for thoughtful Jews.
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Over the coming months we plan on building out our library, adding new topics, series, and essays as we go. We hope you'll join us.