When we teach content, we convey information. When we teach character and moral integrity, we transmit ourselves, giving birth to a new child.
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B'Chukotai, Life Is Beautiful, Tragedy »
G-d’s Unconditional Love
The Torah portion we read this week is not easy to absorb. It is one of two places in the Torah where G-d describes the severe consequences of sin. The imagery is so stark that it can leave one shaken. In Chabad tradition, it is said that Rabbi Dovber, the second Rebbe, fainted as a child upon hearing the rebuke read aloud. Though that story refers to the other rebuke I mentioned earlier, the emotional truth is the same. Read the full story »
Your Fellow is Golden
We can look at our fellow and just see their faults, or just see their strengths. The Torah enjoins us to see our fellow as golden.
Devotion Can’t Be Selfish
Judaism calls upon us to make our lives an altar for serving G-d—not a platform for self-perfection. Our relationship with G-d is not about personal achievement or spiritual gratification. It is about humility, reverence, and service.
Post Passover Reflections: Linking The Past, Present, and Future
Passover is behind us. The question is: what lies ahead?
Yes, summer stretches out before us in all its glory (at least in this hemisphere). Plans must be made, pools opened, and the baseball season has returned. But none of that is really about Passover.
So what is?
What does Passover—now behind us—ask …
Healing the Great Divide
This week’s Torah portion speaks of the mysterious lesions that appeared on the skin of those who trafficked in gossip. Their punishment was at once severe and precise: they were cast into isolation for up to three weeks, until their affliction healed.
The Torah enumerates many forms of ritual impurity. Some …
A Matzah That Flips The Script
Just when you thought misery was bad, the Matzah teaches it can be a source of light.
What Made Moses the Redeemer?
What unique qualities did Moses have that convinced a nation of oppressed slaves that he was their redeemer?
Finding G-d in the Everyday
It is easy to find holiness in the miraculous and extraordinary. The Passover challenge is to find holiness in the ordinary, everyday moments.
Marinating In Divine Thoughts
The only way to build a home for G-d is to make space in our hearts for G-d. This means marinating in Divine thoughts..
Parsha Insights »
Toldot : Israel and Beyond
Our Pasha extols the virtue of Abraham. (1) “He kept my charge, my commandments my decrees and my laws.” The great Commentator Rashi, (Shlomo Yitzchaki, Scholar and author, eleventh century France) explained that Avraham kept all the commandments that were later given at Sinai, including the minute details, the decrees …
Yearly Cycle »
New Year Greeting 5772: New Resolutions
The High Holiday liturgy often makes use of our Biblically prescribed designation as G-d’s children. We remind G-d of the natural love that fathers have for children and beg Him to see us in that light even if our behavior doesn’t reflect the love we have for Him.
In light of …
Concepts »
Chukat: The Yiddishe Mama
Miriam’s Well
Shortly after the passing of Miriam, the preeminent Yiddishe Mama, the stone that accompanied our ancestors in the desert for forty years, from which water flowed miraculously, ceased its flow. The nation realized that the water had been provided in the merit of Miriam and although Moses and Aaron …
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 …
