The Meaning of Sound
What does sound mean to you? Sound plays many roles. It is a vehicle for communication, music, and even distraction, but at its root sound is the simple indicator of life.
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Read the full story »Balak: Stolen Waters
King Solomon famously wrote, “Stolen waters are sweeter.”[1] By this, he meant that the moment something is forbidden to us, we lust after it. Not because we like it or enjoy it, but because we can’t have it. It is a quirk of human nature to be titillated by the …
Chukat: An Available Tool
This week we read the Torah portion that delineates the laws of the Red Heifer. Jews who contacted a dead body were deemed ritually impure. The process of purification was lengthy, but one of the steps was for the impure person to be sprinkled with a mixture of water and …
Korach: Judaism Has a Message
Judaism has a message for every topic in life. Many are surprised by this. Religion is expected to have a relevant take on spirituality and devotion, but what does religion know about geopolitics, race relations, or virology?
A Jew once asked Rabbi Sholom Ber Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, which political …
Shelach: The Behavior Mirror
The mirror can be brutally honest. It reveals our beauty and our ugliness. It is not a good idea to stare in the mirror all day, but every so often it is good to take an honest look in the mirror.
When the Jewish people were in the desert, they found …
B’ha’alotcha: Tithe for Israel
Israel seems to be a recurring problem for the Jewish people. Ever since Joshua conquered the land, nations have tried to wrest it from us. Our ancestors fought recurring battles against the Moabites, Midianites, Canaanites, Amalekites, Ammonites, and Philistines. Later came the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and finally, the Romans, …
Bamidbar: Israel Is On Fire
Israel is on fire this week and we live in an age where this cannot be denied. Footage of skies filled with rockets fired maliciously into densely populated neighborhoods, flood our social media accounts daily. Our brethren live in shelters and too many have been struck. The iron dome is …
Naso: Implicit Bias
Implicit bias is the idea that we all harbor prejudices and stereotypes without our conscious knowledge. It rests on theory that since most of our actions are governed by our subconscious, implicit biases are more accurate predictors of our behavior than conscious values.
In other words, we don’t need to behave …
Behar Bechukosai: Fool Yourself
Do you ever fool yourself? The answer is likely yes because we all do. Every time you something wrong and find a circuitous argument to justify your behavior, you fool yourself.
The Torah forbids defrauding others in business. When you sell or buy from your fellow, do not wrong him. If …
Parsha Insights »
Emor: The Shame Culture
A shame culture is one in which the individual is pressured to conform to the collective. Deviation from cultural norms is punishable by public shaming and ostracism. In a shame culture, people carefully groom their public personas—the image acceptable to the majority. A shame culture operates under the assumption that …
Yearly Cycle »
Passover: He Does not Abandon
Where Is G-d?
There was once a young, fun loving, boy full of vigor and spunk. One day, having acted up during Hebrew School, the boy was called into the rabbi’s office. From under his heavy eyebrows, the rabbi’s deep-set eyes peered out at the child. In a soft but firm …
Concepts »
Yitro – When Student Becomes Teacher
Teaching and Giving
Did you know that Jews knew and studied the Torah well before G-d gave it at Sinai? The Torah was taught to Adam, who taught it to Seth who passed it to his children till it reached Abraham, who taught it to the Jews. (1) This begs 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 …
