Tag: growth

The miraculous splitting of the Sea of Reeds was one of the pinnacles of Israel’s closeness to Hashem. It raises a question, though: Why? Hashem typically hides His presence somewhat, conducting the world in a discrete way and never revealing His presence so openly. As Rabbi Avigdor Miller, zt”l, explains, this spectacle on the Sea of Reeds was performed with two great purposes in mind.

The evil inclination likes to tempt us to indulge in material delights. It is important to know that these delights may have another purpose, too: kedushah (holiness).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "The Israeli economy grew more than most Western economies, almost 2.5 times the OECD average...In contrast to the collapsing economies around us, Israel's credit rating was upgraded last year."

Despite the intense suffering of slavery in Egypt, it was there that Israel became a nation – not just in the spiritual sense, but in the physical sense: it was there that our numbers swelled. This is to the credit of the Jewish women, who despite their oppression at the hands of Egypt relentlessly encouraged the growth of Israel. This provides a glimpse of the greatness of the Jewish women of that generation. Likewise in our times, it is the Jewish woman’s selfless devotion to service of Hashem that builds and sustains Israel.

The Israel Export Research Institute reported that from October 2011 to January 2012, the US share of Israeli exports had drastically declined as compared to the same period the year before. In contrast, Israel's exports to the Asian market have seen healthy growth, with an increase of 9% over the same period, totaling $3.1 billion.

The wardrobe Hashem designed for those who served in his Mishkan served not only to distinguish them but also to impress upon them the importance and significance of the service for which Hashem had selected them. Clothing itself is a form of serving Hashem.

Israel is the most likely country in the developed world to provide riskless returns on investments, according to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek.

The IDF website reports a decline in the number of army recruits this year, pinning the lowest recruitment rate in eight years on slower...

“And men of holiness you shall be to me, and you shall not eat meat in the field of a torn carcass (22:30). The expression “to Me” means “men of holiness that are Mine.” By being holy, they become close to Hashem.

Readers weigh in on “A Well-Meaning Outsider” (Chronicles 01-06-2012)

“And Hashem turned back the sea by a strong east-wind all the night” (14:21). The wind was entirely unnecessary, for it was naturally unable...

After three-plus years of economic challenge and uncertainty, we remain anxious for positive news, the kind that will finally let us believe the worst is fully behind us. Unfortunately, the outlook for the 2012 global economy remains uninspiring: recession in Europe, anemic growth in the U.S. and a sharp slowdown in China and other emerging-market economies all weigh on economist forecasts.

“For I have made heavy his heart and the heart of his servants in order that I should put these signs of mine in his midst and in order that you should relate in the ears of your son and your son’s son how I dealt with Egypt, and you should know that I am Hashem” (10:1-2).

“And Amram took Yocheved.... And she bore to him Aharon and Moshe” (6:20). The names that were given in Egypt were not repetitions of previous names but were original expressions of genuine devotion to Hashem.

Hashem’s kindness is limitless, and even when He administers judgment, it is tempered with kindness.

At a thing’s inception, it contains the potential for both good and bad. This applies also to our forefathers.

The world before the Flood was starkly different from the world today (as even science will attest), and the destruction of the world under a layer of boiling water was an event without parallel in nature or history.

For today's Jew seeking to grow spiritually, there's mussar, and then there is modern psychology. Armed with 20th century research on how behaviors develop and how humans create internal change, today's Jewish do-gooder has an arsenal of tools beyond Pirkei Avos and the mussar masters to work on problems like, say, gossiping or overeating.

Blow your mind bigger and better as you improve upon preconceived ideas about the High Holidays. This slim paperback holds 87 pages full of wisdom, insight, and keys to personal improvement!

The BIG Picture: 36 Sessions to Intellectual and Spiritual Clarity deserves to sell at least as many copies as the Tanach. It's a classroom for spiritual growth.

She looks at me with those large brown eyes. I try to decipher her expression. There's a hint of sadness, doubt and even fear. She averts her gaze, trying to deny her act, as if she's trying to take it back.

She looks at me with those large brown eyes. I try to decipher her expression. There's a hint of sadness, doubt and even fear. She averts her gaze, trying to deny her act, as if she's trying to take it back.

WASHINGTON - Even as it publicly stakes out a hard-line position against Israeli settlement expansion, the Obama administration has so far avoided serious criticism from most U.S. Jewish groups and pro-Israel Democratic lawmakers.

WASHINGTON - Even as it publicly stakes out a hard-line position against Israeli settlement expansion, the Obama administration has so far avoided serious criticism from most U.S. Jewish groups and pro-Israel Democratic lawmakers.

Special Note: For the past two weeks, my columns have focused on ways and means to establish shalom bayis in our homes and our families. The following is the third installment of this series.

Rick Perlstein, an unabashed man of the left, first attracted wide notice seven years ago with the release of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, his engagingly written and fair-minded study of the rise of the American conservative movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

What - another book about ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)? Some of us have an entire bookshelf of these!

The food and hotel industries in Israel are gathering at the end of the month for the Israeli version of Kosherfest.

There's the old joke about two Jews deserted on an island who build three shuls. Like many attempts at humor, there is a certain degree of truth to this adage.

In the first 24 hours of life, a nursing baby gets a big zing of power from its mother's milk.