Sivan Rahav-Meir

Do we have the courage to swim against the stream? To be in the minority? To be different?

What was Adam missing? After all, he had everything – a female companion, food, a Garden of Eden surrounding him. What was lacking?

Of Rav Nissim Karlitz,(ZT"L) the Chazon Ish said “One day, the entire world will hear from him.” He was right.

Chag Sameach

Our soul wants, to be better, different, true. Now the soul prevails over the body, and in the last moments of this journey, we must take something with us, some 'soul food' for the road ahead.

What we need to think about now – in Tishrei 5780 – is Tishrei 5781...Shana tova!

Lean back but be active

Choosing what really matters

Remembering priorities...

ven with all the news stories about “the best teacher I had” or “the teacher who changed my life,” there is no doubt that the teachers who influence us the most are our parents.

Be smart, go 'DUMB'

What makes someone great, really great? Many commentators say the answer to this question is hidden in the following verses from this week's parshah

“Man reached the moon. But man to man he has yet to reach.”

It is the easiest to only praise, to be "all smiles and hearts," but if you truly care about someone, you do not flatter him. You help him become better.

The Baal Shem Tov told his disciples that all the dozens of journeys detailed in this parshah exist also in each person's life – from the day of his birth to the day he leaves this world. In every journey, one has to move upwards and learn something new.

"Starting today, every child to us is like one thousand children." These words were said by Rabbi Herzog to the Pope after the Holocaust when he went out on a journey to find Jewish children who were transferred to convents and monasteries to avoid deportation to Nazi concentration camps, and were baptized to Christianity there. Rav Herzog wound up returning many children to their faith, people, and homeland.

This coming Shabbat will be the 25th Yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The mission and legacy he left for us is more relevant than ever

Parshat Korach reminds us that seeing the good we have, and not coveting the good others have, is more urgent than almost anything else.

This week's parshah teaches us that there is almost no such thing as objectivity. We are all subjective. All of us speak from our own world of values.

Never to old to be a Bar Mitzvah.

Simjon Rosenfeld, 96 years old, was the last survivor of the Sobibor death camp. In a camp in which 150,000 Jews were murdered, he and his friend managed to kill 11 SS people and escape. Most of the rebels were caught and murdered. Simjon survived, until yesterday.

To fathom how great Hillel Butman (ZT"L) was, Natan Scharansky looked up to him.

A message both particular and universal...

Like a grandmother who blesses her grandchildren, she blessed us all. Marie Nachmias raised her hands and eyes to the sky, and the crowd, including the prime minister, rose spontaneously and applauded her.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Since he was saved,the Kaliver Rebbe said Shema Yisrael thousands of times in front of wide, varied audiences. In the prayer book that he published, he added this verse at the end of the prayer in memory of those who died in the Holocaust.

The story of the Exodus from Egypt teaches us to be alert and attentive to “windows of opportunity” that appear in our lives – so seize them.

“Once, when I was a child in Jerusalem, I couldn’t restrain myself and asked him: ‘Is it true that you are one of the lamedvav (36) tzadikim?’... R’ Aryeh smiled and replied with one word: ‘Sometimes.’

“After 2,000 or more years of exile, you could say that from the six days of Creation until this day, we have not merited to see a day like this, that we are holding elections in a Jewish state. Shehechiyanu! Blessed is the One that kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this day!" When Torah meets democracy.

According to Chassidus, the general redemption needed to be preceded by personal redemptions from every single person. That is, every person should prepare himself to be redeemed from all the elements that hinder his life