We are told not to judge a book by its cover, but most of us do. In their inimitable way, our sages tell us, “Don’t look at the cask; look at the wine. Aged casks can be filled with new wine, and new casks can be filled with aged wine” …
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I want to tell you about the modern Chanukah message, but first we must begin with the old Chanukah tale.
“The strong in the hands of the weak, the many in the hands of the few.” This is how our liturgy describes the Chanukah miracle. The strong are the Syrian Greek …
Three Stages in a Tree
Man and tree are the same. What happens to the tree eventually happens to man. in light of the above we explore the teaching from this week’s Parsha that forbids the eating of fruit from the first three years of the tree’s existence. On the fourth …
The Wise Son
On the first night of Passover we are introduced to the four sons of the Haggadah. (1) Drawing on various verses from the Torah, the Haggadah teaches us that there are four types of students: the wise, the wicked, the foolish and the one who knows not how …
A Curious Phrase
The lyrics to a popular Jewish children’s song proclaim, “If I would have the might I would run into the night and I would cry SHABBOS, SHABBOS, SHABBOS, SHABBOS.” Shabbos means to rest, but running around and screaming Shabbos doesn’t sound overly restful to me. What is the …
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 …
