My father-in-law, Is, short for Isadore, would often muse that he was the fifth child born on the fifth day of the fifth month. That

“Mommy, why do you always make this face?” my younger daughter asked me one afternoon last year, contorting her lips into what resembled an angry

With all of the horrific images of public shootings, mass murders and terrorist attacks we are exposed to on an almost daily basis, why is

May these words of Torah serve as a merit le’iluy nishmat Menachem Mendel ben Harav Yoel David Balk, a”h. This week we learned Horayot 8.

Part II Successes and Failures of Medinat Yisrael Many note that although we are grateful to Hashem for giving us Medinat Yisrael, we must acknowledge

Compared to some of our other prayers, the Hebrew in the daily Amidah is fairly straightforward. Nevertheless, there are some interesting words. I will now

At first glance, the connection between the haftarah and our parsha seems obvious: the tragic deaths of Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aharon, the

Q: Which weapon becomes more powerful when you cut off the tip? A: A sword. When you remove the “s” you are left with “word,”

Our Jewish ideology teaches the truth that Hashem created us as “imperfect” human beings, with the charge of growing spiritually each and every day. Indeed,

Days of mourning aren’t foreign to Jews. We all experience periods of personal mourning and grief at the loss of family. Beyond our personal aveilut

In my youth, before I owned any sefarim I loved siddurim and machzorim and was always excited by new ones. This was especially true as

There is a halachic hierarchy principle of prioritization when it comes to aiding those in need called aniyei irkha kodem. This means that we are