It is rare for me to publicly recommend a book, but I had the honor of welcoming my dear friend Sina Kahen’s new book on Bereshit into my library and I cannot recommend it enough! Below, please find my words which were printed in the beginning of the book, as well as a free excerpt […]
Category: Parasha – Weekly Torah Portion
I once had an extremely unsettling conversation that left its marks on me until this very day. [I wish to note the following disclaimer: as disdainful as some of these sentiments may sound, they did not come from a malicious place, but from a place of having been programmed as such by their respective society. […]
Peace is not always the best solution to a conflict. There, I said it. How many times have we been taught that we must always forgive, but never taught that there are those which our Torah does not demand us to forgive? How often have we heard that we must judge everyone favorably, but never told that there are […]
This past week, I had the great honor and merit to attend Isralight‘s annual rabbinical conference held in the heart of Jerusalem. From community rabbis, to teachers, education center directors and Yeshiva rebbeim, we formed a small but powerful group of rabbis willing to make a difference in the education of our students and congregants. […]
This past week, we celebrated Chai Elul – the 18th day of the Jewish month of Elul. It was on this day, in 1698, the great master and sage, Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov (Master of the Great Name), was born. Thirty-six years later, he began to disseminate his teachings throughout the world, after the […]
“These are the accounts of the Mishkan (tabernacle), the Mishkan of the testimony, as were rendered according to the commandment of Moshe, through the service of the Leviim, by the hand of Itamar, the son of Aharon the Priest.” (Shemot 38:21) “These are the accounts: In this parashah, all the weights of the donations for […]
I was sitting here, at my desk, reading through the weeks Parasha while sipping my tea, when a few verses jumped out at me. I read them a few times, and closed the Chumash, to think a little bit about what they meant. A few minutes (and sips) later, I flipped up my laptops screen, […]
As Jews, in the year 2009, we have to asses our situation. How many of us, are in our own “Egypt”, our own troubles in which we cannot see escape? How many of us feel so spiritually distant from our Creator, as if we too were on the 49th level of impurity? How many of us have something in our lives, which we so desperately need to overcome, but cannot?!