Articles in Yearly Cycle
You Are Good
The Chanukah lights broadcast a simple message: you are good. Sometimes we think that if we lose our job, our relationships fail, we succumb to addiction, or are plagued by obsessions, if we are afflicted by doubts and insecurity, if we are sensitive and easily hurt, if we are manipulative …
The Modern Chanukah
I want to tell you about the modern Chanukah message, but first we must begin with the old Chanukah tale.
“The strong in the hands of the weak, the many in the hands of the few.” This is how our liturgy describes the Chanukah miracle. The strong are the Syrian Greek …
Hakhel Gatherings on Sukkot
Hakhel: an international gathering of all Jews, men, women, and children, would take place once every seven years in Jerusalem. A platform would be erected in the Temple courtyard and the nation would gather to hear the king chant from the Torah. It always occurred on the second day of …
Shabbat Shuvah: The Loving Exam
The days of reckoning are here, and it is time for the loving exam. Most exams are associated with tension and trepidation. Irrespective of how well we know the material, proctors do their best to make it stressful. Fear of failure, fear of getting caught cheating, and fear of falling …
Prove It Or Know It
To prove it or to know it, which is better? Most people would say that being able to prove something is better. Proof is the holy grail. If you have incontrovertible proof, you know it is true. If all you can say is, “I know it is true,” you may …
With G-d’s Help
The Torah tells us to appoint judges and guardians at the gates of our cities. The city’s gathering place was usually at the gates, making it the fitting place for the courthouse and police station. However, Jewish scholarship has long maintained that there is a parallel teaching here. We are …
A Month of Refuge
Refuge is discussed often in the Torah. When a Jew killed another inadvertently, he was required to flee to a city of refuge, where he was given asylum from the victim’s relatives. These cities were established throughout the land of Israel to ensure that inadvertent killers had sufficient and easy …
A Shabbat Fast
It is forbidden to fast on Shabbat. In fact, if we fast on Shabbat (even with halachic sanction) we must fast on a different day to atone for fasting on Shabbat. This is why the fast of Tishah Be’av—the ninth of Av, is postponed when it falls on Shabbat —as …
