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 …
Read the full story »
The die was cast. King Achashverosh granted Haman a genocidal license against the Jewish nation. Mordechai was one of the first to learn of the plot and he appealed to Queen Esther for help. Esther explained that it was dangerous even for her to enter the king’s chambers unbidden. Mordechai …
Mother Nature
Before the birth of our youngest son, my wife and I engaged the nurses in discussion about labor and delivery. When they kept repeating the phrase, “Mother Nature knows best,” I was tempted to ask, “Who is this mother you call nature, do you mean G-d?” I wondered how …
To prove it or to know it, which is better? Most people would say that being able to prove something is better. Proof is the holy grail. If you have incontrovertible proof, you know it is true. If all you can say is, “I know it is true,” you may …
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 …
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 …
