Do you peddle in relative truths, or are you a stickler for the absolute truth? This essay examines the two types of truth and posits that G-d’s truth is absolute.
Read the full story »Terumah: Charity In A Failing Economy
Trimming Excess
For most of us the failing economy has translated only into worry and rhetoric. Though unemployment is up and many homes have been lost most of us still have bread on our tables and Cable TV in our bedrooms. But there one sector that is already feeling the pinch, …
Mishpatim: The Baby’s World
Early Months
The moment my daughter emerged from the womb and took in her new surroundings was magical for us as parents. We were enamored with her and clutched her close to our hearts, but she was oblivious. She never acknowledged her parents, she simply slept. Over the last few days …
Tu Bishvat: Economic Blessings
Full Moon
The fifteenth day of every lunar month, when the moon is at its fullest, is a day of celebration. From that point forward the moon’s size diminishes slightly every night until it disappears. The curious point is that the moon neither grows nor shrinks. Its light is neither dimmed …
Beshalach: Love of LIfe
Red Sea
An entire nation had narrowly escaped; the army of murderers, bearing down on them just a moment earlier, now drowning in the ocean. G-d had orchestrated a brilliant rescue. Jews stood huddled on the far shore watching their captors toss helplessly about on the surging waves of a plunging …
Bo: The Miracle of Nature
Months and Years
Have you ever wondered why there are annual cycles in the lunar calendar and monthly cycles in the solar calendar? Think about it. The solar calendar is defined by the cycle of seasons as the earth tilts on its axis for three-hundred-and-sixty-five days; nothing in this calendar lends …
Vaeira: When Faith Breeds Confidence
Our Grandparents
I stand in awe of my grandparent’s generation, who fought two world wars and overcame a depression in the span of three short decades. They stood up to the twin evils of Nazism and Communism and created peace, stability and even prosperity. They did not have the luxuries we …
Shemot: The Rightous Triumph
The Enemy’s Narrative
A recent headline in Time Magazine said it all: “Can Israel Survive It’s Assault On Gaza?” Note the tone of despair in our discourse as we voice concern for the survival of the attackers, rather than the attacked. Recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon and the current …
Vayechi: True Guardians
Protect or Destroy
Listening to media reports about Gaza and Hamas, I wondered how a terror group came to be viewed as a legitimate government. When did we start treating those who blow themselves up on buses and lob rockets into kindergartens as soldiers in a legitimate army? How did the …
Parsha Insights »
Acharei Mot K’doshim: A Lifetime of Forward Steps
Be Holy
Our Parsha exhorts us to be holy and the reason given is “For I (Hashem) am holy”. The Midrash adds that though we are encouraged to reach for Hashem’s holiness, it will always remain beyond us. What did the Midrash seek to accomplish by this statement? Try to reach …
Yearly Cycle »
Extracting Sparks from Stones
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 …
Concepts »
Masei: The Wandering Jew
Wandering
Why is the Jew always wandering? We left Egypt and spent the next forty years wandering in a dessert. Throughout our exile, our people have wandered. Even today, Jews who live in stable countries, don’t remain in the same place for long. Even Jews in Israel, wander away in search …
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 …
