We can look at our fellow and just see their faults, or just see their strengths. The Torah enjoins us to see our fellow as golden.
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Tuesday, July 9, the 3rd of Tamuz, will be thirty years since the passing of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, my mentor, teacher, and inspiration. He was not just my Rebbe. He was the Rebbe of the people. Jews from far and wide consulted him. They sought his advice, …
The Pawn
What is your favorite piece on the chess board? The queen, horse, castle and bishop are all important, but the pawn has one capacity that the others don’t, growth. The pawn is not at all versatile, it crawls forward one step at a time, yet when it reaches the …
The dreidel for Chanukah and the gragger (Ra’ashan) for Purim have the exact same structure, have you ever noticed? Both have a round bulb from which a stem protrudes. The difference is that the dreidel’s stem protrudes from the top of the dreidel and points upward, the gragger’s stem protrudes …
Living is giving is one of the themes of this week’s Torah portion. Joseph rose to prominence in Egypt because of his ability to interpret Pharoh’s dreams. He accurately predicted a seven-year period of plenty when all harvests would be bountiful. The Middle East would enter a phase of incalculable …
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 …
