17 Aug THE GATEWAYS OF OUR HEAD – PART ONE
On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we chant slowly the venerable psalm, L’Dovid Mizmor. The saying of this psalm is considered a big segula for parnassa, for one’s livelihood. In...
10 Aug AN ELUL PRIMER
The month of Elul is upon us with all of its seriousness and high stakes. First of all, it is the last month of the year and in Yiddishkeit this...
03 Aug WOW! ELUL IS HERE!
Believe it or not, Elul is upon us! How do we juggle the seriousness, gravity and trepidation of Elul with the lazy days of summer? How can we relax and...
27 Jul THE LITMUS TEST OF ONE’S YIRAS SHAMAYIM
The posuk in Mishlei states, “K’kesef l’matzreif vk’cur l’zahav, ish k’fi mehalalo – Like silver in the refinery and gold in the crucible, so is a man according to his...
21 Jul OUR LOVE OF HASHEM – IN THE SHEMA
In our daily Krias Shema, we say, “V’ahvata es Hashem Elokecha – And you should love Hashem Your Go-d.” Both the Rokei’ach and the Baal HaTurim reveal that the word v’ahavta is an anagram of ha’Avos, our Patriarchs, referring to Avraham,...
13 Jul A THOUGHT ABOUT RAIN
Here on the eastern seaboard, we’ve been having an unusual amount of torrential rain. When viewing this casually, especially during the summer months, we consider rain a big nuisance. It...
06 Jul THE CROWN OF A GOOD NAME
In Parshas Pinchas, the Torah records prominent families of the Bnei Yisroel. There, it states, “V’sheim bas Asher Serach – And the name of the daughter of Asher was Serach.”...
29 Jun SHALOM EQUALS LONGEVITY
One of the great Biblical acts of valor was the zealous execution of the Nasi Zimri and the Midianite Princess Kozbi by the courageous tzaddik, Pinchas. Although the Torah rarely...
22 Jun THE POISONOUS TRAIT OF A NEGATIVE ATTITUDE
When Balak, king of Moav, saw that the great giants Sichon and Og fell to the Bnei Yisroel, he was filled with terror. These giants who were born before the...
15 Jun WHAT IS PURE EVIL?
How would you, in the Torah world, define evil incarnate? When the Torah says, “Vayikach Korach – And Korach took…” the Gemora in Sanhedrin asks What exactly did he take?...