The Haftorah for the first day of Rosh Hashana is the story of Chana (Shmuel I Chapter 1). Chana was barren for so many years. Finally, she goes up to the Mishkan, receives a bracha from Eli Hakohen...
As we approach Rosh HaShanah, the Day of Judgement, I want to share with my dear readers some last minute strategies that I believe can make a very significant difference for the coming year. The first is to remember...
On Rosh Hashanah night, we eat simanim, such as an apple dipped in honey, among other simanim. The origin of this custom is the Gemara (Krisus 6), which states, symbolic signs have significance. Eliyah Rabba (quoted in Mishnah Berurah) writes, “The Shlah teaches that...
This month many of the bakeries sell raisin challah. Many local bagel stores recently stopped selling cinnamon raisin bagels. Are raisins kosher to eat? The OU’s position is that raisins are kosher. The only issue that comes up with...
The Torah never directly commands sounding the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Instead, it tells us, in Parashat Emor (Vayikra 23:24), that we must observe the first of Tishri as a “Zichron Teru’a” – literally, “the remembrance of a...
The parsha opens with the mitzvah of bringing bikkurim, the first fruits of the seven species of Eretz Yisrael. A farmer brings them to the Beit HaMikdash in a basket, hands them to the Kohen, and recites a...
I’m engaged to wonderful woman, who shares the same values as I do, is caring, kind, and sensitive. We had a great vort, but as we begin talking about the wedding...
We all are familiar with the custom of reciting Selichos from before Rosh Hashanah until Erev Yom Kippur (and some communities even from Rosh Chodesh Elul). The question arises each year when the Selichos period is upon us as to...
This year, many people are going to try to learn lessons about how to do teshuvah from artificial intelligence (AI). I am going to go in the other direction and discuss how AI shows the wrong way to...
Parashat Ki-Tavo begins with the mitzvah of bikkurim – the requirement that a farmer bring the first of his fruits that ripen each year to the Bet Ha’mikdash, and present them as a gift to a...