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I found myself struggling to understand the rapid fire Hebrew spoken all around me but I forced myself to speak the little Hebrew I knew and slowly I became proficient.

On that particular day the aforementioned rav and the rosh yeshiva left the yeshiva for a few hours to research an army base that could possibly offer some opportunities to their boys down the line.

The premise of the Torah is that G-d must be found somewhere in particular if He is to be found everywhere in general. As Shabbat is holy time, Israel is holy space. That is why, in Judaism, religion is tied to a land, and a land is linked to a religion.

Looking at and taking notice of a Sefer Torah is therefore of great value. Here is an item that has not changed an iota. Its physical nature attests to its stability. It is the only thing in the world that would not give in to innovation.

It’s probable that one toddler, imagining that she had been deserted, would just have sat down on the floor and maybe cried until someone reunited her with her loving mother.

On the one hand, Sukkot is the most universalistic of all festivals with the sacrifices brought by the 70 nations; on the other, it is the most particularist of festivals, the festival of a people like no other, whose only protection was its faith in the sheltering wings of the Divine presence.

The thief took his advice and did so. Yet, when the official got up to speak, he informed the court of all the horrible things the highwayman did to him.

Repentance is, by far, the greatest miracle. In the dimension of time there is no such thing as going back. But in the world of repentance, time is created backward. It allows the re-creation of the past, to make the past better than it used to be

Hashem has put me in the right place at the exact time. It was a true miracle.

Considering that I am not a youngster, I have to admit that change, especially of the unexpected sort, is most challenging.

Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement, is the supreme moment of Jewish time, a day of fasting and prayer, introspection and self-judgment. At no...

G-d is merciful and loves his children more than we can understand. He isn’t interested in punishing just because we did wrong.

It used to be that when our youngest boys were about to go outside and it was cold, I’d sometimes remind them to take a jacket. Now I remind our youngest son, Yisrael Meir, to take pepper spray.

She spoke with a smile on her face, exuding a calm acceptance of her less-than-ideal circumstances.

The search for perfect justice is not for us, here, now. It is – as Moses taught the Israelites in the great song he sang at the end of his life – something that faith demands we leave to G-d, who alone knows the human heart, who alone knows what is just in a world of conflicting claims, and who will establish perfect justice at a time, and in a way, of His choosing, not ours.

Each one of us no matter where we live, our gender, our nationality or the social circles we live in, have worries.

These PETA people are not Orthodox Jews. So, why would they so strongly criticize a kosher packing plant for what they believe to be violations of kosher practice? They are using tactics similar to the Nazis.

Lacking the actual Hebrew word for the wanted piece and maybe even the English one, the handyman wasn’t getting what we needed.

The sages believed with great force that an agreement must be free to be binding. Yet we did not agree to be Jews. We were, most of us, born Jews. We were not there in Moses’ day when the agreement was made. We did not yet exist. How then can we be bound by the covenant?

We swam in the pool, played ball, barbequed, and played music but one thing that was different was the little store we had always remained closed on Shabbos.

One of the fundamental aspects of Rosh Hashanah is malchus – accepting Hashem as our king; the one and only king.

We prepared and learned and repented in order to make Hashem very proud of us.

Seeing my distress, a very kind employee named Lori (whose last name I regretfully forgot to ask about) very compassionately offered me the use of a stroller she just “happened to have” in the back room of their office.

This is the time to stop and see in which direction we are heading in our lives. What type of investments are we making?

Despite being excited about seeing the beautiful twinkling lights of a mostly sleeping city, I was exhausted and kept yawning.

First, even had the president actually said something reprehensible, is it our job to reprimand him? Is that in the charter statements of these organizations?

Now other than it being very frustrating we must learn to contemplate on those times and see beyond the moment of distress to a higher force.

These PETA people are not Orthodox Jews. So, why would they so strongly criticize a kosher packing plant for what they believe to be violations of kosher practice?

One unexpected bonus of our two-week trip was meeting up with some of our Israeli family.

The more we learn about the psychology of bereavement and the stages through which we must pass before loss is healed, so more the wisdom of Judaism’s ancient laws and customs becomes ever more clear.