Over the past week, we have seen anti-Israel college takeovers with protestors openly declaring their desire to kill Jews and to render Israel—from the river to the sea—Juden Rein. The brazen tactics and bullying have left many Jewish students and faculty members afraid to venture onto campus. As we approach …
Read the full story »Taking the Plunge
The Cliff Jumpers
On a recent trip to the Niagara Escarpment I observed large signs proclaiming the prohibition against jumping off the high cliffs into the turbulent waters of Georgian Bay. At first I was surprised that the obvious had to be stated, after all, who in their right mind would …
Devarim: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: Seventy Languages
Why did Moshe translate the Torah into seventy languages when most Jews did not speak these languages? Hebrew is G-d’s tongue and is therefore a natural conduit for holiness. Accordingly, when studied in Hebrew the holiness of the Torah permeates our minds and hearts. Moshe, who gave us …
Masei: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Forty-Two Journeys
The Torah, usually so economical with words, outlines the forty-two journeys that our ancestors made across the desert. The Baal Shem Tov taught that this enumeration illustrates that we each travel through forty-two stations during the course of our lives.
The details of these stations are known to …
Matot: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: The Vow
The Mishnah encourages us to take oaths against sins toward which we are inclined because “vows promote abstinence.” The Jerusalem Talmud discourages use of vows to prohibit behaviors that the Torah permits because “G-d’s prohibitions should be sufficient.” Which is the correct approach?
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Pinchas: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Commensurate Reward
For slaying Zimri, the man who committed a sacrilegious act in public, Pinchas was rewarded with the High Priesthood. What is the connection between the act and its reward?
Jewish law stipulates that a priest forfeits his priesthood through murder. Pinchas would have known this when he slayed Zimri, …
Balak: Food For Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Instant Wrath
Fearful of the Jewish nation, the Moabite king Balak, sent word to Billam, “Behold a people has come from Egypt . . . and [now] sits opposite me.” Our sages taught that G-d is angry for a millisecond every day and Billam was able to identify that moment …
The Rebbe
This Shabbat marks the Yhartzeit (anniversary of passing) of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. His interest and reach was truly global as the rebbe cared for every Jew. It is with this in mind that I offer this essay. I hope you will take a moment this coming …
The Rebbe and World Leaders
A Wedding
It was 1929 in Warsaw Poland. Thousands of Jewish dignitaries from both Western and Eastern European countries gathered for a special occasion; the Lubavitcher Rebbe would marry off his daughter to a young, unassuming, previously unknown scholar.
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Parsha Insights »
Vayechi: Our Mother
At The Grave Of A Mother
I was standing in Bethlehem at the grave of our nation’s mother, the Matriarch Rachel. I was praying for myself, my family and our nation. I poured my heart out on this quiet sunny morning, to a mother I had never met. Swept up in …
Yearly Cycle »
Sukkot: Inside Outside
The Outdoors
In his book, “Inside Outside,” Herman Wouk describes the struggle of living a Jewish life in a non Jewish society. It is a masterful description of living by one set of values at home and encountering a different one on the street.
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Concepts »
Nitzavim: Tears of Joy
The eyes of a Jew on Rosh Hashanah—the annual day of judgment, are often filled with tears and remorse. We know we will be judged for our behavior. We also know that some of our behavior has been compulsive, some of our personality has been toxic, and some of our …
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 …
