Are we truly equal? We all know someone smarter, wiser, more capable, industrious, resourceful, or creative, than us. We also know people less wise, capable, industrious, resourceful, or creative than us. So, are we truly equal?
The answer is yes, but not because we are all equally capable. Our skill sets …
Ki Tavo: How To Grow A Relationship
An Odd Verse
Many verses in the Torah are difficult to translate, but this one is a real mystery.
“You spoke G-d this day, to be your lord… And G-d spoke you this day to be His people.” (1)
Can you make sense of this verse? If you’re struggling with it you’re …
Ki Tetze: Why Divorce Is Necessary
Two Worlds
Nearly all children dream of marriage, yet nearly half of today’s marriages end in divorce, why is divorce so rampant? Conversely, with divorce so rampant, why do we still marry?
Tweet
Re’eh: Charity From The Heart
Unhappy Giving
I have a confession. I can’t stand being thanked for giving charity. I just hate it when the person to whom I gave a dollar smiles and heaps lifelong blessings upon me. I usually make a dismissive gesture, wait till they walk away, heave a small sigh of relief …
Ekev: Popular is not Always Right
The Market Syndrome
The markets are behaving poorly, stock prices are erratic and investors, whose portfolios have been thinned, want to bail. Is it time to panic? Should we call the stock broker immediately?
Tweet
Vaetchanan: The Love Deficit
Managing Debt
Unless you’ve been hibernating, you have certainly heard that the United States Congress voted to raise its national debt ceiling by 2.4 trillion while pledging to cut spending by nearly the same amount.
Tweet
Devarim: Do You Love G-d or Youeself?
What have We Learned?
It is nearly two-thousand years since the Holy Temple stood as a glorious testament to G-d on the Temple Mount. It was ransacked and razed by a marauding mob that cared little for the nuanced relationship between the human and G-d. As the Temple smoldered in the …
Masei: The Journey of Life
It’s What We Bring Home That Counts
Life is a journey with stations along the way, some more comfortable than others. It is when we settle in to the comfort of those stations that we often forget we are in mid journey.
Tweet
Matot: The Joys of Ice-Cream
Can You Have Your Cake And Eat It Too?
When we see a religious leader living the good life, fancy cars, extravagant expense accounts and private jets, we are naturally skeptical about their piety. When we think of the devout we conjure up images of the impoverished and downtrodden whose faith, …
Parsha Insights »
Bo: Linking to the Divine
The Name
The name of the Torah portion that describes the exodus from Egypt is Bo, which means enter. Names of Torah portions comprise messages and instructions. What is the message of this name?
Tweet
Yearly Cycle »
The Three Weeks: An Overview
10 Tevet
There are a
series of fast days that commemorate the destruction of the holy
Temple. The first one falls on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of
Tevet. This fast begins at sunrise and ends at nightfall.
On this day the
Babylonian army laid siege to the holy city of Jerusalem. The siege
lasted …
Concepts »
Famil Life: Laws of Family Purity
Disclaimer: There are
myriads of laws that govern the many dimensions of Family Purity and
they are beyond the scope of this presentation. The intention here is
to to offer a brief glimpse of the Family Purity life style.
During the period of menstruation husband and wife should refrain from intimacy together.
After a …
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 …
