In life, before we move forward, we must take inventory. It is true in the business world just as it is true in many areas of life. Without examining and taking stock, we fail to learn from the past and risk repeating the very same mistakes. For religious people, “cheshbon hanefesh”—moral inventory—allows correction of

When I was in my late teens, I once asked my rosh yeshiva, Hagaon Harav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, zt”l, “What should I do? There are some people who annoy me and I have a hard time getting along with them. How can I ‘love them like myself?’” Rav Finkel advised me, “Do something for them—help them, do them a favor or buy them

By creation of both human and animal, the verses both state that each received a “living soul.” Rashi (Bereishit 2:7) points out, however, that the living soul mentioned in reference to humans refers to the function of intelligence and the ability to speak. Words are thus an essential aspect of being human. Our Torah portion contains

Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Well, that really depends on the training you got. Are you the one who sees every blemish, who notices every error and is quick to recognize and attempt to fix and heal? Or maybe you have the tendency to see things in a more wholesome light, always looking at the bright side of life, recognizing good

Every day during math class, Max goes to the building next to his school for speech.

One day when Max was leaving school, his friend Moshe saw him and thought he was ditching school. The next day, while Moshe was walking to school with Ari, he told him that Max skips math class every day for no reason.

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, a leading chasidic rabbi, was one of the most prominent rabbinic victims of the Holocaust. A leader of the Warsaw ghetto, he secretly ran a shul as well as covertly supervised outlawed Jewish rituals such as marriages and milah. He also delivered weekly Torah lessons that addressed the terrible nightmare that

One of the more distinguishing life values that Judaism advocates is the type of food that a Jew eats. There are foods that a Jew is commanded to eat such as matzah on Pesach and, continuing with Pesach, there are also forbidden foods such as leavened bread. The laws and customs regarding kosher food are numerous and complex. Perhaps no

The 49ers never drop the ball. But how many of us make it through 49 nights from the second night of Pesach all the way to Shavuot without losing count? Sometimes we may never even make it onto the field. We are so busy preparing for second night Seder that we might miss evening prayers in the synagogue and forget to count day

The parsha of Shemini engenders questions. Here are a few.

Except for in a leap year, Parshat Shemini is always read after Pesach. What is the significance of this juxtaposition?

The parsha begins with Moshe calling Aharon, his sons and the elders of Israel together,

Sarah was born into a Moroccan family and lived in a suburb of Montreal, Quebec. Her family was traditional, but not very observant of mitzvos. Tragically, her mother passed away when Sarah was 17. That started her thirst to search for more meaning in her life and Sarah started to learn Torah and take on different mitzvos.

Many of us can remember when President John F. Kennedy exclaimed, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” When it comes to engaging in acts of kindness, “chesed,” many of us need to ask ourselves the same question. It’s not “what can others do for me” but rather, “what can I

The parsha begins with the final day of inaugurating the Mishkan, and the first day of service. Certainly a tremendous day of joy and fulfillment: We have developed a “resting place” for Hashem’s Shechina to reside within our vicinity and can connect to Him. Right after, we then experience a rather tragic occurrence, involving the