How Can He Be So Insensitive? The Haftarah for the first day of Rosh Hashanah tells the story of Chanah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. Chanah, the childless wife of Elkanah, came to Shiloh (where the Sanctuary...
THE This Shabbos, we read parshiyos Nitzavim and Vayeilech. We are coming towards the end of the Chumash, and the final days of Moshe Rabbeinu’s life. In Parshas Vayeilech, Bnei Yisroel are given the last...
There is a well-known custom to recite L’Dovid Hashem Ori, the 27th chapter of Tehillim, from the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul until after Sukkos. What is the source of this custom? Why is there such a...
INGREDIENTS: 1 stick margarine room temperature 3 tablespoons oil 2 eggs 1 cup sugar Zest of 1 orange 1 teaspoon almond extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 cup almond flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 3/4...
Many yungerleit in Eretz Yisrael don’t own a car. Although financially easier, and the bus system is good, taking buses can make traveling long and tiresome. Sometimes, a person can spend most of his day on busses. Such happened to...
There is a pasuk in the Book of Yirmiyahu (8:6) which, I believe, encapsulates what this month, the month of Elul, is all about. Yirmiyahu made the following observation about the people in his time: There is no...
May one buy cut fruit from a store that does not have a Hechsher? No! We get this question all the time. People are invited all the time to meetings in non-kosher places...
Make a Confession! I want to achieve an ambitious goal with this essay: I want to bring back confession to Judaism. People attribute confession to Catholicism; they think it is the job of the priests. I believe it...
When you ask a rabbi a question, you are committing yourself to following his answer. But what if you didn’t ask? Do you still have to follow his ruling? Put in a different way, and a bit more...
The Kasav Sofer, zt”l, zy”a, says that the blowing of the shofar during Elul reminds us of the objective of shapru ma’aseichem, make your ways prettier. (Shofar and shapru, to be pretty, share the same root.) One of the...