In a small village in Lithuania, a young boy named Berel received a bicycle as a gift. Berel loved his bike and drove it every day, including Shabbat. The Rabbi heard about this and announced that Berel should henceforth be referred to as Berel the goy—the non-Jew. Berel heard about …
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Are you among the living or are you alive? To be among the living means that we are breathing, and functioning—we are not dead, but neither are we fully alive. To be alive means to pulsate with the energy of life. To be fully attuned to life.
After Jacob, our patriarch, …
Flickering Flames
The first snow of the winter is always a delight, but not when it arrives in October.
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The Odd Celebration
Simchat Torah is a festive holiday. We carry the Torah scroll around the Bimah (Torah reading table) and dance the night away. The reason for this great joy is the completion of our annual cycle of Torah reading.[1] Every Shabbat we chant a portion from the Torah and …
Long Term Goals
Why is it so difficult to choose long tern gain over immediate satisfaction? Most of us make that choice, but not until we are forced to. We don’t refuse the extra snack unless we are already overweight. We don’t hold down our cholesterol unless the doctor orders us …
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 …
