When we are jealous, we measure our value by others’ success. We can’t be like others. We were born to be ourselves. When we accept that limitation, we begin to shine.
Read the full story »Vayigash: A Special Moment
The Reunion
Do you know the feeling of meeting up with your spouse after being apart for several days or even weeks? How about seeing your child come home from school for the first time in months or seeing family members that live halfway across the world? It is a giddy …
Vayishlach: Living A Full Life
Life and Death
When are you most alive, after birth or after death?
That is a crowd stopping question. What in the world does it mean?
Well, think about it. When you were born, G-d breathed a soul, a part of Himself, a slice of heaven, into your body. Your soul is your …
Vayetze: The Jewish Oneness
Twelve Sons
Jacob had twelve sons, each was a little different from the others. But they were much more alike than Isaac’s or Abraham’s children were. They were different parts of the same spectrum. Different colors of the same rainbow. Intrinsically, they were one.
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Toldot: To Really Trust
Digging Wells – A Matter of Trust
Abraham fed wayfarers, Jacob herded sheep, and Isaac dug wells. Which would you rather do? The host is in a position to help others and make them happy. The shepherd provides for G-d’s creatures. The well digger provides access to water. If you could …
Chayei Sarah: Every Jew
Who Came first?
Do you remember when Al Gore took credit for inventing the Internet? You have to love it when people come along decades after something is in place and claim to have discovered it. Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, right? Wrong. Natives lived here for thousands of years before Columbus …
Lech L’cha: Are you Bored?
The Cause
We are a society accustomed to stimulation. We grow bored quickly. We surf from channel to channel, web site to web site, job to job and career to career. Hardly anyone still lives in the home of their youth. Most have moved multiple times since their first home. Routine …
Vayera: Your Daily Sacrifice
One Or A Thousand
Which is harder, death by execution or death by a thousand cuts? Chananiah MIshael and Azariah were pious Jews held captive in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar offered them a choice between idol worship and death. They chose death and were thrown into a cauldron. Miraculously they survived, but the …
Vayigash: We Are Family
A Pleasant Flight
It was Friday morning and I was preparing to board a flight from New York to Detroit. It was a flight like many others, but for me it was special because though I was alone that morning, I was surrounded by family. The flight was filled with Jews.
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Parsha Insights »
Do You Have The Courage To Be Free?
Do we have the courage to be free? As we read about our ancestors leaving Egypt, we realize that they took a huge leap of faith. In retrospect it seems simple. They left a land of suffering and bondage and embarked on an idyllic journey through the desert where food …
Yearly Cycle »
Seventenn of Tamuz: Destruction and Hope
During the Hebrew month of Tamuz, Jews around the world observe a three-week semi mourning period to commemorate the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
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Concepts »
What I Learned from the Eclipse
Yesterday we were treated to a rare phenomenon, the eclipse of the sun. Scientists and laypeople alike were fascinated by the sudden visibility of the sun’s splendorous retina; the periphery that peeked out from around the moon’s perimeter.
The periphery is not usually visible because we are blinded by the sun’s …
Rabbi’s Desk »
What Can We Do?
These past two days have been the most difficult for our people in the last fifty years. It was Simchat Torah, a time for rejoicing, yet it was a time of horror. Nearly a thousand members of our family were brutally murdered, more than a hundred were taken hostage, and …
