The Shabbat before Passover is called Shabbat Hagadol, the great Shabbat. There are several reasons for this moniker, primarily that a great miracle occurred that day.
On this day, the Egyptian firstborn observed Jews leading lambs down the public streets to their homes. This was surprising because the Egyptians worshipped lambs. …
Apathetic Frostbite
The Baal Shem Tov taught that a Jew must utilize every encounter to gain inspiration inhis or her divine service. One winter day, the Baal Shem Tov’s students noticed a cross engraved in a sheet of ice and asked their rabbi what inspiration might be derived from a cross. …
When G-d told Abraham to travel from the home he had built in Haran to Israel, he and Sarah gathered their household and went. Who were the members of their household? The Torah tells us that it was Lot, their nephew, and the souls they had made in Haran.
Who were …
Simple Lights
Have you ever noticed that seasonal lights are more glamorous then the Chanukah lights? Have you ever noticed that seasonal lights come adorned with trees, gifts and a kaleidoscope of color while our lights are simple and undecorated? Have you ever noticed that ironically (or maybe by Divine Providence) …
The moral sense is the innate human conviction that kindness and fairness are good, and cruelty is bad. We can’t explain why this is so, but if anyone would claim that cruelty is good and challenge us to explain why it is bad, we would throw up our hands in …
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 …
