Chodesh Tov/Rabbi Hanoch Teller

I do not know the name of this chaplain. I wonder (and strongly doubt) that he ever heard the radio program. But his wise and sensitive comment had had a ripple effect that he never could have imagined.

Thinking about how much we can do in comparison to what we have done serves as a corrective against pride and arrogance.

Because I have been teaching and lecturing for decades, a lot of people have seen and heard me, making me a likely subject for bageling. Often the gesture is less discreet and takes the form of frontal gawking and waving.

He left the meeting with no doubt that if Hitler only could, he would destroy European Jewry.

Reb Shlomo Zalman could not endure honorifics applied to him because of his enormous humility

Another installment in the ongoing Rubashkin saga

Where were the righteous gentiles – the “Schindlers,” if you will – of Kristallnacht? My quest to answer this question revealed information I had not anticipated.

The sense of brotherhood is so genuine because aside from the fact that Israel is now caught in an existential struggle, it is fighting as a family.

This precise question does not arise in the Talmud. But young Reb Shlomo Zalman was able to marshal his breadth of knowledge and genius of application to render a most innovative ruling.

I didn’t let go of what I correctly perceived was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and accompanied Rav Elyashiv all the way home – again just the two of us.

Reb Elimelech M’Lizhensk was considered one of the finest students of the Baal Shem Tov’s successor, the Maggid MiMezretch. When the Maggid passed away, his disciples gathered for the funeral and then had to decide who would succeed their master.

“I never said I have nothing to complain about,” she intoned with an expression that belied her age. “I just don’t see the wisdom of protesting. I am fine and I am being adequately nourished.” And with that she went back to her cereal.

At its worst, nearly 200,000 'fare-beaters' daily entered NY City's transit system without paying

Another installment in the ongoing Rubashkin saga

Whereas Salek's father's appearance was rather modern for that period - sporting only a short beard, just like his cousins - his grandfather, Avrohom Orenstein, had a flowing beard and wore a shtreimel on Shabbos.

A betting man would have been hesitant to wager if the Warfield could make it across the Atlantic. Yet the group of idealistic recruits set off on February 25, 1947 under Haganah Captain Ike Aronowicz.

Law-abiding, mild-mannered, Rabbi Dr. (Psychology) Simcha Goldman was unprepared to obey the direct order of his commander that he could NOT wear his yarmulke outside the hospital. Strike 2 on Goldman

If you expect more, you will be less grateful; if you expect less, you will be more grateful.

Norman Rosenbaum was the only one in his family up to making the trans-world trip and accepting the challenge.

The Baal Shem Tov was the founder and the visionary of chassidus, but the architect who built and spread the movement was Rabbi Dov Ber, the maggid of Mezeritch.

Baruch, from the village of Radovitz, was a sharecropper who barely eked out a living. His income was at the mercy of the infamously cruel Poritz, who owned the Radovitz environs.

Though the Yale 5 lost the case and appeal, they ultimately won: Yale became flexible about housing

If the walls have ears (as the Midrash points out) then how much more so, human beings.

To the misnaged-opponent, chassidus was not perceived as a different strand of normative Judaism, nor as a movement to uplift downtrodden Jews – but as an existential threat to Judaism itself. And the threat was no longer viewed as a futuristic potentiality; it was a real and imminent danger, for the movement was no longer limited to just the commoner but had infiltrated the ranks of scholars.

Even with night school, Avraham remained only nominally educated, but he was high on motivation. So high that he taught himself to become a CPA and then returned to the very office where he had started, at the very lowest rung.

The conclusion to Shalom Rubashkin's circuitous route through the US legal system that ultimately led to justice

The story of Air Force Chaplain Rabbi Geller's options concerning his beard: "Either you go to the barber shop or you go to jail."

Scholars have debated where precisely the Baal Shem Tov was born, few giving credence to the tiny village of Okopy (pronounced Akup). Most likely he hailed from Kolomyya on the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains and on the banks of the Prut River. Nearly 300 years have lapsed since the passing of the Baal Shem Tov and all the while the stories of his miraculous abilities have increased. Yet all fail to fully portray his greatness.

Do you mean to tell me, I gasped, unable to contain the note of exasperation from my tone, that I waited nearly two hours on the line only to find out that I had called for nothing?

Many people turned to Rabbi Kelemer not just because of his proficiency, but because he always knew precisely whom he was addressing, and perceived what they needed – without tampering with halacha.