Dedicated to Sam Borodach, z’l The Torah gives very little explanation of the holiday that we call “Rosh Hashanah.” It calls it “zichron teruah” (Leviticus
With Ha’azinu, we climb to one of the peaks of Jewish spirituality. For a month, Moses had taught the people. He had told them their
Many years ago, on a group trip to Israel with members of our shul, we had some time between Havdala and our midnight flight back
Reb Yaakov Krantz—the great Maggid of Dubno—related a timely anecdote: “There was a day laborer working as a porter who made his parnassa doing odd
A few years ago, my wife took our younger children to one of the local Jewish-owned shoe stores to buy shoes. The store had a
While reading Bava Batra 103a, I noticed that the sugya discussed densities and the kav measure; how much someone would willingly forgo; comments by specific
It seems that every few years someone argues that the message of the Akeidah, the binding and near-sacrifice of Yitzchak (Gen. 22), is something other
After Moshe taught the song of Haazinu to the nation (Devarim 32:42), God told him to go up to Har Nevo and see the land
In our parsha, Moshe challenges Am Yisrael’s behavior, saying (32:6), “Is this how you repay Hashem, O vile (‘naval’) and unwise nation? Is He not
Rav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, was once asked an interesting question by a woman who was in need of surgery (Derech Sicha, page 174): She inquired
לעילוי נשמת יואל אפרים בן אברהם עוזיאל זלצמן ז”ל Question: I unfortunately must eat basically regularly on Yom Kippur. Which of the mitzvah elements of
Generally, a Jewish holiday’s theme and the emotions it evokes are pretty clear. Pesach is a celebration of our freedom, and on Shavuot, we rejoice
