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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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 …
The Air Outside
Shortly after the Tzadik Reb Mendel of Horodok arrived in Israel a man climbed the Mount of Olives and sounded a Shofar. A rumor quickly spread that the Shofar’s call heralded the arrival of Moshiach. When word of this reached Reb Mendel, he threw the windows wide open …
When you go to war, you need a winning strategy. It doesn’t matter how strong or weak your army is, success depends on the strategy. If the generals devise a winning strategy, you have a chance of winning the war. If they don’t have a winning strategy, you have lost …
Months and Years
Have you ever wondered why there are annual cycles in the lunar calendar and monthly cycles in the solar calendar? Think about it. The solar calendar is defined by the cycle of seasons as the earth tilts on its axis for three-hundred-and-sixty-five days; nothing in this calendar lends …
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 …
