Parshat Bereishit Michelangelo was once asked: “How is it that you create such wondrous sculptures and works of art? How can something so innovative and
We all sing this song peacefully. Could anything be controversial about it? (This is aside from the mild disagreement that might occur over whether each
Editor’s note: This is an annotated, slightly edited written version of oral remarks posted on erev Hoshana Rabbah, 5781, Thursday, October 8, 2020. We are
Rabbi Yosef Soloveitchik has often been quoted as saying that if he could add to Maimonides’ 13 Principles of Jewish Faith, it would be that
What does this year’s unusual Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur davening—with most communities having organized multiple minyanim in various locations—have to do with day school
Recently, during the cḥazan’s repetition at Mincḥa, I noticed a fellow Baltimore Ravens fan in the back of the overflow men’s section in the shul
My rav, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, outlined the purpose of his life’s work in a letter he wrote in 1980 before undergoing major surgery that became
What do Houston, Miami, Brooklyn, The Five Towns and Lakewood all have in common? All of them were cities that participated in Dirshu’s momentous Yom
This week is called Shabbat Shuva, meaning the Shabbat of return, but where are we returning to? Micha, the navi of the haftarah, tells us
In its preface, “Shirat Haazinu” calls upon shamayim va-aretz (“heaven and earth”) to bear witness. Their very mention beautifully ties together the end of Sefer
Entrenched in a life abandoned from God, the Gemara (Avoda Zara 17a) tells us of a to-be-great person by the name of Elazar ben Burdaya.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus argued that no person “can step in the same river twice” because the river is always changing,
