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April 25, 2026 – 11:39 pm | Comments Off on Your Fellow is Golden128 views

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.

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The Hostages Are Coming Home

October 9, 2025 – 11:29 am | Comments Off on The Hostages Are Coming Home458 views
hostages

As I write this on Thursday morning, it appears that the hostage exchange will at least begin before Monday evening, the commencement of the Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah holiday. It is hoped that all the living hostages will have been returned by then in a single wave. The bodies …

Leave Your Resentments at The Door

October 2, 2025 – 11:18 pm | Comments Off on Leave Your Resentments at The Door381 views
Sukkot-family

When you think of the Sukkah, you think of walls and sechach—a foliage roof. Yet, the name Sukkah is all about the foliage roof, the sechach; that is why it is called Sukkah. Sukkah is a derivative of sechach. The foliage roof indeed makes the Sukkah; otherwise, it is just …

Extracting Sparks from Stones

September 20, 2025 – 11:11 pm | Comments Off on Extracting Sparks from Stones539 views
Orthodox Jews wearing tallit shawls are praying with Siddur prayer books at the Western/Wailing Wall or Kotel, holiest site in Judaism; Jerusalem Israel

G-d created the world through speech, and the words with which He created us are very much like flames. “Behold, my words are like flames” (Jeremiah 23:29). Flames don’t burn unless they have fuel to consume. The same is true of G-d’s words. “For G-d your G-d is a consuming …

Is Your Love for G-d Actionable?

September 17, 2025 – 8:54 pm | Comments Off on Is Your Love for G-d Actionable?577 views
types-of-flowers-780x520-1

Minutes of formal meetings always end with a list of actionable items. Committees love to talk and to hear themselves talk, but if the discussions don’t produce actionable items, they are not useful.
The same is true about love. Loving someone in theory or loving the idea of someone is not …

Tomorrow Is Too Late

August 23, 2025 – 11:10 pm | Comments Off on Tomorrow Is Too Late836 views
tomorrow

A good friend recently lost his father. I meant to call him as soon as I heard, but he was sitting Shivah in Mexico. So, I told myself I would call him after Shivah. A week passed, and I was going to call him that day, but I developed a …

Improve Your Eye Sight

August 16, 2025 – 11:33 pm | Comments Off on Improve Your Eye Sight887 views
eyesight

Every year, on the last Shabbat before Elul—the final month of the year, we read a Torah portion that begins with the word reeh—see. The passage reads, “See, I set before you a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that you fulfill the commandments of G-d your G-d that …

Make Your Desert Bloom

May 24, 2025 – 11:13 pm | Comments Off on Make Your Desert Bloom1,087 views
rocks

Every year, we read a Torah portion called Bamidbar—in the desert—on the Shabbat before Shavuot. This portion describes the census of the Jews in the desert. Just as we count forty-nine days and then celebrate Shavuot, so should we read about the counting of the Jews and then celebrate Shavuot.
This …

When the Soul is Bound to G-d

May 10, 2025 – 10:34 pm | Comments Off on When the Soul is Bound to G-d1,457 views
thank-you

On Friday, May 16, Jews around the world will celebrate Lag Ba’omer. Lag Ba’omer is a joyous day. In Israel, thousands flock to Miron, the burial site of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the second-century Talmudic sage who passed away on this day.
Rabbi Shimon was the first to publicize and record …