Our Glorious, Gutsy Past
For God’s Sake!?, Chapter 3
The Mother of all Chumrot
For God’s Sake!?, Chapter 2
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty-Six: Tevye the Builder
The next chapter of the award-winning novel.
What If Rabbi Akiva Would Visit Boro Park or Bnei Brak
For God’s Sake!?, Chapter 1
The Ups and Downs of Life in Israel (Book Review)
Choosing Life in Israel evinces what it means to be emotionally, spiritually, and viscerally drawn, as a Jew, to the siren song emitted by Israel.
For God’s Sake!?
You don't have to be 'right' – to be correct.
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty-Five: A Thousand Tevyes
The next chapter of the award-winning novel.
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty-Four: Fear No Evil
The next chapter of the award-winning novel.
Title: Jewish Identity: Who is a Jew?: Modern responses and opinions on the registration...
Published originally in 1965, this reissue of a classic is now more relevant than ever. Jewish law legislates that a child is Jewish if the mother is Jewish, or one who had converted to Judaism according to specific halachic requirements. Jewish identity is thus not merely sociological and demographic (if Jews live in the land of Israel) nor ethnic (differences in customs, folkways, and liturgy and practice of Ashkenazi Jews vs. Sephardic Jews), but rather determined by a maternal hereditary religious blood covenant.
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty-Three: The Settlers Draw Lots
The next chapter of the award-winning novel.
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty-Two: A Letter From America
One late afternoon when Tevye returned to his tent after a back-breaking day in the winery, a letter was...
Title: Movers & Shakers
You’ll never get anything you need or want if you don’t ask. You have to ask the questions.
Treasure this advice, because it’s one of the best you’ll get in life. At times it’s thorny and complicated to ask another for something – what if he says no and your request is rebuffed. Rejection is hard to take. And what if you’re imposing or the requestee has a hard time saying no? But you’ll also never get a “yes” without first asking.
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty-One: Hevedke the Jew
The next chapter of the award-winning novel.
Book Reviews
It might still be two weeks to Pesach, but is never too early to start thinking about Afikomen presents.
A Chassidic Classic For Readers Of All Backgrounds
Reading Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein’s Essays On the Weekly Parsha Based on Nesivos Shalom I could not help thinking of the old warning that “a young man who wishes to remain an unbeliever cannot be too careful of his reading.”
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty: Waters of Eden
What was a man, Tevye thought, that one moment he could be so filled with power and seemingly invincible force, and the next moment a motionless pile of flesh?
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Plague
The next chapter in the award winning novel.
Title: Without Red Strings Or Holy Water: Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah
Rabbi Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) was a halachist par excellence, philosopher, physician, and a political leader of the Jewish community at the ibn Ezra Synagogue of Egypt. Born in Cordovero, Spain and caused to flee a fanatical Muslim sect, the Rambam travelled to Morocco, Eretz Yisrael, Alexandria, and then served as a physician in the court of the Sultan in Cairo Fostat.
Title: In One Era, Out the Other A Memoir of 20th-21st Century Jewish Life
Each one of us finds ourselves at the center of six generations of history. We hear the echoes of our grandparents’ era and see the beginnings of that of our grandchildren and we hope and endeavor to be the fulfillment of the hopes of one and the inspiration of the other.
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Twenty-Eight: Waiting for the Baron
When word arrived that Baron Edmond Rothschild was coming for a visit, with none other than the famous Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the colony turned into a frantic beehive of activity.
You Can Tell This Book By Its Covers
You can tell Rabbi Yossy Goldman’s book From Where I Stand: Life Messages from the Weekly Torah Reading by its covers. The front cover is a photograph of a rabbi in a shul that is full of light.
Title: A Neuropsychologist’s Journal: Interventions and “Judi-isms”
I was recently invited to review A Neuropsychologist's Journal: Interventions and “Judi-isms.” Normally this wouldn't take me long as I would get the gist of the book by quickly skimming through it. Instead I found myself engrossed in reading this book word by word, cover to cover. The short chapters had me hungrily turning the 459 pages for more, and at times, I just could not put it down.
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Twenty-Seven: Hodel Leaves Perchik
Overnight, Tevye's new cottage became a warm, haimisher home...
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Twenty-Six: Tevye Takes a Wife
Both of Elisha's two grown daughters were golden-skinned, beautiful, devoutly religious, and nearly half Tevye's age. The eldest daughter, Carmel, was naturally the...
Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Twenty-Five: Tevye Cures the Muktar’s Daughter
On the arranged date, the Jews set out to survey the land which their Arab neighbors wanted to sell. The Muktar Abdulla...