When I was younger, doctors were just starting to understand the horrible health effects smoking can have on people. This information led to higher taxes, warning labels on cigarette packages and age restrictions on purchasing cigarettes. Through additional studies we learned that smoking is dangerous for anyone who inhales

On a quiet summer night I was relaxing on the edge of the water in Tiveria, taking in the air of that uniquely beautiful city. As I gazed across the Kineret, I couldn’t help noticing a boat with bright neon lights and music playing. It was a “party boat” filled with people creating their own hedonistic world, in sharp

We all know that in addition to our physical body, we possess a soul—a neshama. But what is a neshama, and is there a concrete way to relate to it?

The ‘Breath’ of God

To begin to understand the neshama, we must look to the Torah’s

This week’s parsha of Bamidbar starts with a common mistranslation offered by Artscroll and others. In Chapter 1, verse 2, God commands Moshe, “Se’u et rosh kol adat Bnei Yisrael.” It is commonly translated as “Take a census of the entire Jewish people.” However, those who know Hebrew can tell you that

In addition to my work at Congregation Shomrei Torah, I had the privilege of being a middle school rebbe for several years. One day, in the middle of March, I took my students out for recess and it started to snow. The policy of the school is to not allow students to take their phones out during the day.

A good friend of mine, Dovid, flies weekly from Newark to Rochester, New York, for business. The Rochester airport is quite small and the staff all know him. Frequent flyers like Dovid know that delays are part of the deal, so he always brings pastries to give to staff whenever there’s a delay. Why this gesture? He said simply,

Although Shavuos is a biblical holiday, it is never described as “Zman Matan Toraseinu” in the Torah. And there have been some very good suggestions made as to why the association between the giving of the Torah and the holiday of Shavuos is only made in (later) rabbinic literature, despite the date of public revelation, when

Our attention was recently focused once again toward the State of Israel, not only due to the 51st anniversary of Yom Yerushalayim or even due to the move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Instead, we witnessed an array of rocket activity as tensions escalated between Israel and Iranian forces located in Syria in the aftermath of

Behar-Bechukosai

When I was a teenager learning in Eretz Yisrael, I returned to America in the summer to earn money for the following year in yeshiva. One summer I was working as an intern for an investor on Wall Street. The salary was quite good, but it was not enough to cover all my expenses

Soon the holiday of Shavuot will arrive, a time known for when God delivered the Torah to the Jews at Mount Sinai. There is a fundamental question that must be asked about this holiday that can shed light on the document of the Torah to which most religions are founded upon.

The question is as

The first Rashi in our parsha is fairly famous, as his question (quoting the Sifra) of “what connection does Shmita have with Har Sinai?” has become part of the vernacular in frum circles, meaning “what does one thing have to do with another?” Yet, since the very next line is “weren’t all the commandments said at

Young children enjoy standing in front of mirrors and making funny faces. Why? Because the funny expressions stare right back at them! On a deeper level, a person’s facial expression speaks volumes about his or her life. And it’s fascinating that the Torah uses the word “faces” to describe the show bread—Lechem