Judaism

The Torah emphasizes the importance of our work in its very first parshah, Bereishit. The world’s vegetation was ready to sprout, but did not because there was no man to work the ground.

Rabbi Isaac Bernstein of blessed memory, in his tapes on Chumash, states that chumrahs have had only a deleterious effect upon our people – generating only dissension and arguments, feelings of oneupsmanship and elitism, causing separation and fragmentation between one Jew and the next.

Question: I am interested both in the name Elul and that month’s unique position as the last month of the year. Yet it is connected with Tishrei, the month that follows, and its holidays, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. I am also interested in the religious practices during the month of Elul. M. Goldman Miami Beach, Fla.

Or told her that in Judaism it is appropriate to say a blessing upon meeting a king or queen. He asked her if he could make the blessing and she agreed.

Today, Chai Elul, one can fill one’s buckets generously.

When a person wants to pray, they encounter many distractions. Still, they should give themselves over entirely to the task, exerting every effort to pray properly.

Itis also noted that the one who leads selichot is required to go through the trouble of waking up earlier than everyone else. The privilege of leading the remaining services of the day was his reward and appeasement for having lost sleep.

The performance of our Torah's ritual precepts must be contextualized & experienced within the larger meta-narrative of Israel's story & mission.

There is a common misconception that lashon hara refers only to sharing false information about another person. People claim that if something is true, however, there is nothing wrong with sharing it.

In every phenomenon, the beginning remains always the most notable moment. -Thomas Carlyle

Work your schedule; don't let your schedule work you.

When we focus on the moment, allowing ourselves to dance, sing, and give thanks, when we do things for their own sake not for any other reward, when we let go of our separateness and become a voice in the holy city's choir, then there is joy.

A time will come when the world and all its inhabitants will be lost in darkness (ibid. 60:2). In the midst of this darkness, Hashem will shine His light upon Israel, and upon Israel will His glory be beheld.

One of the greatest problems at this time of the year is that the Yetzer Hara tells us to put off doing teshuva. But we must act now, before the deadline. Our version of April 15 is approaching fast, and we must pay our due.

It was during the latter part of the hot days of August when the significance of the mitzvah of tzedakah hit me square in the face.

According to Rabbi Bedersi, klimah is the most intense type of embarrassment: it results from somebody doing something that he was not supposed to do, or somebody being called out for his misdeeds.

Perhaps our first step must be to pop the huge balloon that envelops us so that we can see beyond our own confines.

I personally do not believe that this is a tzniut issue, but if one feels that it is, others should respect their views.

We are coming close to the holy judgment day and we must make sure that we enter that courtroom as clean and as clear as possible.

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Everyone willingly and eagerly went to the Beit HaMikdash, even for two olives and two figs, because when they brought the bikkurim, they could ask Hashem for whatever they wanted, and it would be granted.

Since it was a fairly last-minute decision, (again my dear husband, being my dear husband), he was kind enough to do the shopping for that meal on his way home from work on Thursday.

The Heiress? “Determining The Daughter’s Status ” (Kesubos 68b-69a)

As the article did not distinguish between a Jewish-owned store and one owned by a gentile, a reader posed the question: How can hefker beis din apply when the ring is bought from a gentile?

Even when we pray on behalf of individuals, we pray for them as part of the broader community.

There is always a chochom deep inside our child, our student or our friend, but sometimes we have to extract it from its concealment into reality.

Question: I am interested both in the name Elul and that month’s unique position as the last month of the year. Yet it is connected with Tishrei, the month that follows, and its holidays, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. I am also interested in the religious practices during the month of Elul. M. Goldman Miami Beach, Fla.

There are commandments and customs that involve morality. These are a way of life.

The murderer explained that his downward spiral began with the theft of that trivial eraser. After that, he stole a pencil box, and then he stole objects of greater value until he advanced to stealing money and eventually murdering people.

Although a number of customs and themes characterize the month of Elul, it might just be that it is the repeated recitation of L’David that encapsulates them all.