Why Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai?
Most of us don’t understand the Torah of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at all, but we understand that there is something there, that there is a greater unseen depth to life.
When Those Around Us Despair
When faced with uncertainty, confusion, or disillusionment due to current challenges, turning our thoughts positively towards the past and the future can empower us with perspective and inner strength.
How Do You See Yourself?
After all, summer vacation is not a vacation from values or from anything that is important to us. It's a vacation from school alone.
10,000
These last two years have demonstrated how vital it is to feel solidarity not only toward those who have passed away but toward those who have been sick but are not yet fully recovered, toward business owners, toward coping parents, and, in fact, toward everyone who has been affected,--which means every one of us.
The Request Of A Soldier Who Lost A Leg
Let us hope that children from Be’eri, Sderot, and Kfar Aza can gain strength from his story. This is not only a personal story of Yisrael, the orphaned child. This is the story of the nation of Israel.
The Kohen Gadol: Alone And Not Alone
The high priest is alone. It is forbidden for anyone to be with him, but it is precisely because of this restriction that his power is so great.
Lighting Until The Flame Rises On Its Own
Initially, we have the task of simply lighting a fire. To educate, to explain, to pay close attention and to inspire.
Heroic Driving
In overcoming our impatience on the road, we perform a truly heroic act.
Shabbat In Kharkov, Ukraine
Alexander Kaganovsky, president of our cong. asked for silence and said: 'I want to thank all the emissaries who have stayed behind with us. For many years you have been saying that you are an inseparable part of us, but now you proved it in the moment of truth.'
Take Heed
Rashi explains that the Torah coupled these two incidents together on purpose, in order for us to notice that the spies saw what happened to Miriam, but did not learn a lesson from it. In his words: "And these wicked people witnessed it, but did not learn their lesson."
True Leadership
Moshe was a stutterer and did not look for a leadership role, but he proved that one can lead even without charisma – through the power of faith, prayer, and a sense of mission.
The Perils Of Boredom
What is the connection between the story of the spies and of Korach?
There’s Nothing Profound About Melancholy
Rebbetzin Yemima Mizrachi: "We live in a joy-challenged society. Today, joy must be learned. It is precisely joy, which everyone treats lightly, that requires serious consideration on our part."
Are You Sure You’re Getting All The News From Israel?
There have been many events expressing unity and support that have taken place in the Jewish world in recent days, but many of them have not been reported in the press. It seems that only a rowdy demonstration, a fight on Twitter, or a sharp exchange in the Knesset are considered newsworthy.
Shabbat: A Break From Living Twice As Fast
Patience, listening, concentration, waiting patiently, the capacity to be here and now and not to run ahead, the ability to fully experience the moment – all of these are significantly diminished in the digital age., But Shabbat..
Walking Into Freedom – Every Day
We are supposed to prepare for the 14th of Nissan, the day of the Exodus from Egypt. To study the holiday, to go through the Haggadah and, mainly, to go forth into freedom ourselves.
What Are These Jewish Artifacts Telling Us?
They are telling us something about special sights and sounds, flavors and fragrances, about tradition and family, about identity and longing, about an attempt at destruction and the triumph of the living.
To Desire!
We need to pay attention to our bodies. We speak about values and Torah but ignore the fact that the body is the tool upon which values and Torah depend.
80 Percent Vs. 20 Percent
When 80% is a failing grade.
What Is Freedom?
Freedom is the ability to strive to find the good where no one else sees it. And also to articulate it, with passion.
Why Are Video Games More Popular Than Movies?
Lean back but be active
Happy 110th Birthday
Apparently, she is the oldest woman in Israel. So we came to celebrate with her, with the aunt who always fascinated us with stories about the pioneers, the different waves of immigration, and the beginning of modern settlement in our land.
Total Devotion: An Extended Yom Kippur Fast In Auschwitz
It's the story of two girls in Auschwitz who wanted to fast on Yom Kippur (even though according to halacha or Jewish law they were not, of course, required to do so).
I Was A Slave In Egypt
One of the major messages of the Lubavitcher Rebbe was to utilize every situation in which we find ourselves for good.
And Firing At Sderot Is Okay?
It's not normal to permit a reality such as this, and those living near the Gaza border have put up with it for 20 years.
Getting Excited For The Right Reason
On Shabbat we finished reading the book of Exodus with its emotional description of the completion of the Mishkan, the spiritual center that accompanied us in the desert. This apparently was the first crowd-funding endeavor of our people.
A Rabbi, A Disability, An Inspiration
When G-d takes something from the body, he gives something else in its place. True, I am physically disabled, but I learn quickly and my memory is very good.
Now’s The Moment Of Truth
Will we still remember the importance of eating healthy now that we can again eat whatever we want outside?
We Don’t Even Realize What We’re Missing
We are like poor people who do not know they are poor and how rich they could be.
Ignorance as Bliss: He Thought The Temple Still Stood
Though I have heard many explanations about the meaning of this day ( Tisha B'Av)– senseless hatred and violence, ignorance and alienation – I had never heard anything like the explanation I received this week:}