There are very few feelings in life that leave us more challenged, hurt and insecure than the feeling we get from being ignored. Part of

Parshat Vayeira “ … V’Torat chesed al l’shona.” The events we read of in this week’s haftarah—a selection from the fourth perek in Melachim Bet—bear

During my first six years of marriage, I lived in a neighborhood in Yerushalayim called Maalot Dafna, near East Jerusalem. Very early each morning I

As we saw in our last piece, the Torah explains that mitzvah fulfillment is for our own good. Mitzvah observance is not just a duty;

The famed kabbalist, Rav Yitzchak Luria, the Arizal, taught that before praying we should formally commit to the mitzvah of loving one’s fellow man, “v’ahavta

לעילוי נשמת יואל אפרים בן אברהם עוזיאל זלצמן ז”ל Question: At a shul kiddush, I wasn’t able to hear the bracha but answered “amen” when

The founder and rosh yeshiva of ITRI (Israel Torah Research Institute), Rav Mordechai Elefant, was a unique talmid chacham and builder of Torah. A scholar

וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו אַיֵּה שָׂרָה אִשְׁתֶּךָ וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה בָאֹהֶל. (בראשית יח:ט) “And they (the angels) said to him (Avraham), ‘Where is Sarah your wife?’ And he

What does the phrase וְהָוֵינַן בַּה— “and we discussed it”— truly mean? It appears in Bava Batra 138. My usual approach is that the phrase

While at first glance it might appear that one who gives to a needy person is the real “giver” in this exchange, on a deeper

At first Avraham feared that he wouldn’t have any, but then God promised, “Your children will be many.”   God said that despite suffering from

The reelection of President Donald Trump has sparked new interest in the blessing that is recited upon kings. Do we recite a blessing over President