Articles tagged with: joy
Rosh Hashanah: Making A Tzimmes of Tzimmes
Head or Hair?
Rosh Hashanah is not just the first day of the year, it is the head of the year. A head serves two purposes: It is a platform for hair, as in a beautiful head of hair, and a housing apparatus for the brain.
The head is the seat of …
Chanukah: Lights of Joy and Inspiration
The Night And The Light
As dusk gathers and darkness approaches, night falls and gloom encroaches,
we seek inspiration anew. What is a person to do?
The answer is simple at this time of year, light a candle and banish the fear.
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Vayetze: Our Purpose
Look A Kippah
When I was growing up in Boston, Massachusetts, few Jews wore their Kippot (head coverings) outdoors. Seeing a man wearing a Kippa on the street always generated excitement: my siblings and I would point in awe and exclaim, “Look, there is a Jew.” We felt an immediate kinship …
Devarim: When Crying is not Enough
Emotional Death
“Rabbi,” he wailed, “my wife of seventeen years has just passed on and I cannot live without her.” This cry pierced me to the core. I empathized and soothed in every way I could. In the end, the words that resonated with him were, “Don’t compound your wife’s physical …
Emor: The Joys of Restriction
Soft Tones
In this week’s Parsha we are told of the many restrictions that were placed upon the Kohanim. (Priestly family) They may not attend funerals unless the deceased was a direct relation. Their choice of spouse is also restricted. But in instructing Moshe Rabeinu to convey the news of these …
The “Light” of Chanukah
A story is told of a man who was struggling along with an obviously heavy sack slung over his shoulder. The weather was hot and humid making his task arduous and tiring. A passer-by, clearly intrigued by this individual, asked him what it was that he had in the sack. …
Vayera: What’s in a Name?
He Made Me Laugh
When our matriarch Sarah gave birth to her son she was ninety years old. So ecstatic was she at this miraculous birth that she named her child, Yitzchak. Yitzchak means he will laugh and Sarah’s precise words were, “a laughter G-d has made for me, all that …
