Judaism

Why was Yaakov holding on to Eisav’s heel? The heel is the lowest part of the body! And why is this fact highlighted for all generations in Yaakov’s name?

I would like the cassettes back! said Yuval. There are some collector's items in the collection, and I still use a cassette player.

…when we invariably resort to our old habits, we think we have failed…Rosh Chodesh is a monthly renewal to “get up and come” back on track.

When someone close to us is suffering we are often at a loss. What should I say? What should I do? We do not want to be the cause of any more pain.

Question: Does one wash one’s hands in the bathroom with soap and water, or is it required to pour [fresh] water from a vessel with handles three times on each hand alternatingly? I have heard it said that a vessel is used only in the morning. A Reader New York, NY

How do the character traits of Esav and Yaakov find expression in the rival civilizations they produced?

My initial search for heroes of Kristallnacht came up empty. Surely there must have been upright Germans who shielded their Jewish friends and neighbors from the angry mobs seeking them out. Sadly, my detailed research yielded only a pitiful, nameless few.

The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. -Henry Ward Beecher

Another explanation for the custom is based on a concern that a woman's hair might become unintentionally exposed from under her wig or other hair covering.

Isaac fully understood the nature of his two sons. He loved Esau but this did not blind him to the fact that Jacob would be the heir of the covenant.

Abarbanel describes some of the spiritual depths to which the inhabitants of Yerushalayim had sunk at this twilight of prophecy. Those who should have been the leaders, the best among us, had become the worst.

The young man said, ‘I don’t want to listen to any mussar; it doesn’t interest me. Just leave me alone!’

You know deep down that you are unique, that you were created for a reason, and that you have a unique mission in this world – yet again, it is impossible to prove.

The physical is not an end in itself- it is meant to serve as a vehicle for transcendent, spiritual, conscious living. This is the battle we face on a daily basis, a battle of perception.

Selling low or engaging in wasteful spending shows that one’s assets are not so valuable and important to him, so zal/zollel came to also refer to something that has a lowered value.

Even though we are two Jews with three opinions, we must always maintain one heart.

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We must remember our parents and be there for them although we are very busy and have so much to do. We mustn't wait for them to be ill in order to visit them or see what they need.

Sanctified For Now And Thereafter “In Front of the Sun or Behind It?” (Rosh Hashana 23b)

Naama realized how much she needed to see her baby brother. He was her little darling and she couldn’t bear the thought of him being alone for even a minute.

Of Sarah we know that her beauty, as legendary as it was, was only one small fragment of her greatness.

Question: Does one wash one’s hands in the bathroom with soap and water, or is it required to pour [fresh] water from a vessel with handles three times on each hand alternately? I have heard it said that a vessel is used only in the morning. A Reader New York, NY

It was obvious I was in the wrong place with the wrong people and I needed to get out of there.

Rabbi Sacks once said that he lectured hundreds of times a year, met thousands of people every month, and spoke constantly with people of every type throughout the world. Which question, do you suppose, was he asked most often?

"The report does not show any violation," Chaim told Josh. "If there were any sidewalk violations, this report would show them!"

If Hashem tells Avraham that he will have a child, how can Avraham even think of suggesting otherwise? And what does it mean that Hashem took Avraham ‘above the stars’?

Perhaps even more perplexing is the fact that we are taught that the only way to earn entry into the rarified grave of the Meoras HaMachpelah is to be one of the elite few who died by misa b’nashika, through the kiss of Hashem.

Within that degenerate ocean, however, are islands – paradise islands for the soul and oases of divine connection.

Long before Jerusalem was mentioned in the biblical text, Hebron was embedded as a site of pilgrimage for sacred memory.

Only a woman whose being was suffused with the characteristic of chesed would be a suitable wife for Yitzchak, and that was not a quality that could be discerned with a miracle.