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 …
Read the full story »Ekev: Animal Lovers
Caring for Your Pet
From time immemorial people have raised animals, but they didn’t always love them. Early animal domesticators put their animals to work. Wolves and later dogs were used as hunting tools. Cattle and fowl were either slaughtered for food or kept for wool, milk and eggs. Horses and …
Vaetchanan: The Heart of Religion
The Curve
Have you ever noticed the curve of the Ten Commandments?
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The Nine Days: Suffering Leads to Growth
Why Nine?
Life isn’t a coincidence. Everything has meaning, it’s all “Bashert” [providential]. In 350 BCE and again in 69 CE, during the days leading up to the destruction of the Temple, our ancestors suffered greatly. The Babylonian forces and later the Roman Legions ransacked Jerusalem and brutalized the inhabitants. Every …
Matot Masei: Israel and the Jews
What Is It?
What is it with Israel and the Jews? Take me for example; my family hasn’t lived in Israel for centuries. In fact I don’t how far back I need to trace my family history to find my roots in Israel. I’ve lived in North America all my life, …
Pinchas: Jewish Popup Screens
Pop Ups
Have you ever wondered why pop-up screens always offer gambling or lust opportunities and never Torah or Mitzvah opportunities? When was the last time you visited your favorite news site and got a Jewish pop-up screen offering you a chance to give charity? Did you ever check the weather …
Balak: The Perennial Critic
How to Treat a Critic
There are those who thrive on highlighting other people’s faults. It gives them such pleasure, they can hardly contain themselves. If they can’t find fault they drive themselves incessantly until they find it and failing that, they grow despondent. Mostly these people don’t intend harm, they …
Chukat: What I Learned From A Wellspring
Springing the Well
Wellsprings are G-d’s gift to the world. Arid climates become fertile when wells are discovered. Parched and thirsty souls find life, salvation and hope with the discovery of a well. A well discovery is cause for celebration and certainly a reason to praise G-d. It comes as no …
Chukat: Dancing Flames – Dancing Souls
This article is presented here to mark the anniversary of Rabbi Josef I. Schneerson, the former Lubavitcher Rebbe’s, liberation from prison, which falls this week on the twelfth of Tamuz. His crimes against Soviet Russia consisted of teaching torah and Judaism.
As the Bombs Fell
On September 27’th, 1939, (14”th of Tishrei …
Parsha Insights »
Free Palestine?
I was walking home after services on Friday night and passed someone who raised his arm and screamed, “Free Palestine”. I said nothing in response but thought, “I hope Palestine is free, dear chap now that you’ve done your part. And I hope you sleep well, dear chap now that …
Yearly Cycle »
Devarim: A Healthy Waste
A Holiday
Joseph Stalin reputedly visited a Jewish inmate in prison who was rumored to foresee the future. Can you tell me, asked Stalin, when I will die? Well, replied the Jew, I can’t tell you the exact date, but I can tell you that will die on a Jewish holiday. …
Concepts »
Matot Masei: Unity in Good Times and Bad
Anxiety Brought us Together
Disaster is the parent of opportunity. When the normal and routine are shattered, when calm and confidence are shaken, the patterns of life are altered and new opportunities are born.
It remains to us to convert these opportunities into reality. It remains to us to grasp that, if we …
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 …
