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 »Shoftim: Write a Torah
Your Own Scroll
One of the six-hundred-thirteen commandments is the obligation for every Jew to write a Torah scroll. Jews that are not trained to write the Torah script may discharge their obligation by commissioning a trained scribe to write it for them.[1]
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Re’eh: Teaching Children
Memories of Children
What are your earliest Jewish memories?
My formative memories are of the holidays. Building a Sukkah with my father and brothers. Eating Matzah at the Seder table. Hearing the Ten Commandments on Shavuot.[1]
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Ekev: Why Fear G-d?
What is Fear?
Western society has rejected fear. We look back to the pedagogy of previous generations and believe it better to teach our children with love. We look back to the fear based leadership exercised by regimes and monarchies in the past and believe that our tolerant and open approach …
Vaetchanan: Therapeutic Healing
A Six Day Journey
We come away from the ninth of Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, with a spring to our step and a sense of hope. The six day stretch between the ninth and the fifteenth of Av are a transitional period, a time for healing. Our …
Devarim: Your Dying Words
What Would You Say
If you were told you had five months left, who would you spend it with and what would you tell them?
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Matos Masei: Resisting Peer Pressure
The Dilemma
Resisting peer pressure is a common challenge. It is a mistake to think that this is only a problem for young people; it pervades every segment of society. You might attend a party and experience pressure to drink. You might attend a social evening and encounter pressure to gossip. …
Pinchas: Moses is You
The Past
There is a large cemetery in the annals of academia in which the past lies buried. This cemetery takes the form of history books monuments and museums. We visit our past, research and teach it, but we don’t live it. The past is simply, in the past. Judaism is …
Balak: To Be Like Dust
Curious Praise
Overwhelmed by the beautiful sanctity of the Jewish people, Balaam burst forth with, “who can count the dust of Jacob?”[1] What did he mean by dust and why did he mention Jacob rather than Abraham?
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Parsha Insights »
Vaetchanan: Life’s Little Lessons
Two Stalled Cars
On a family visit to San Antonio I was called upon to demonstrate my mechanical prowess or, as it turned out, my lack thereof.
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Yearly Cycle »
It Is Time for Your Spiritual ECG
After several bouts of dizziness and lightheadedness, I was booked for an ECG and given a Holter Monitor to wear for 72 hours. This was my first experience with an ultrasound of my heart, and I had all kinds of questions. I hope I wasn’t a nuisance that morning, but …
Concepts »
The Whip
The whip is usually an instrument of punishment, but it can also be a gift. Teachers of old used the whip to administer corporeal punishment. However, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, once wrote about a teacher that was beloved by his students. This teacher never used the …
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 …
