It’s never all or nothing.
Words matter enormously. Yom Kippur is filled with them. We confess, pray, plead and ask to be forgiven. But our words have to result in something.
Parshat Ha’azinu teaches why the words of our prophets and sages carry the force of a Divine command - and why we recite blessings on rabbinic mitzvot.
Moses succeeded in saving Israel from destruction, but he could not overturn his own decree. In Parashat Haazinu, the true power of prayer becomes clear.
When parents want to admonish their son or daughter about prayer, they should examine themselves to see whether they themselves pray seriously.
Jewish memory performs both a miracle and a wound: it restores the vanished world vividly enough for us to love it, but never completely enough for us to cease mourning it.
It seems that the Rambam does not rule out the possibility that the world could face Divine judgment resulting in its destruction.
The holiest day of the year does not arrive without warning.
Can it be that every Masechet in the Talmud has a vision?
We ask Hashem for the blessing of being able to be clever, so that we can use our wisdom to cope well in this world.
On Yom Kippur, we make a principled declaration: Our true essence is spiritual.
Rabbi Teichtal the Gra, Rav Kook and the Ohr Sameach on aliya.
A spiritual decline does not necessarily begin with a major decision or a dramatic break with the past. Sometimes it begins with something small, almost too small to notice. Only later do we see where that change has led.
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life. It has revolutionized the way we think about G -d the human soul, the world and our place in it.
As Rosh Hashanah approaches, it is appropriate to understand the Questions a person is asked when standing before the Heavenly Court. Torah, service, redemption-the six questions encompass the life and mission of a Jew in this world, on the condition that fear of God precedes all of them.
What we can learn from the story of Hannah, which we read as the Haftorah for the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
Israel is the country with the most altruistic kidney donors per capita.
G-d is not here to catch us but to help us reach our tikkun, rectification. Each failure is merely a test that we were unable to overcome, but G-d is not done. Another similar test will come our way to see if we can overcome it.
Hashem, our loving Father, does not turn away from the echoing plea from His children
The soundless voice of silence. What is it telling us?
"When the world falls into the error of thinking that the goal of Emuna is already in its hand, at that very moment it begins to turn away from it."- Rabbi Avraham HaCohen Kook.
Rosh Hashanah is the time for introspection with what we come before the Heavenly court.
Both Abayyé and Reish Lakish said that we read the admonitions in Parashat Ki Tavo immediately before Rosh Hashanah “so that the year should finish together with its curses" - each for his own reasons. What were they?
The Jewish people of tomorrow are growing up in the homes and classrooms of today.
Just before Rosh Hashanah and with elections looming ahead, let us contemplate the great miracles that the Jewish people have undergone.
Hold fast to your values, even when they are challenged. Do so knowing that the same God who sustained our ancestors through generations of uncertainty continues to sustain us today.
Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria....
Rosh Hashanah does not simply mark the passage of time. It assigns that time meaning.
We can stand together without praying together.
Answers to the question posed by the Mussar master, Rav Israel Salanter.
The Sages decreed not to blow the shofar out of fear that a single Jew who does not know how to blow might carry his shofar on Shabbat in a public domain. For the sake of that single Jew, we suspend the mitzvah of shofar-blowing that year for all the people of Israel!
The shomer, Rabbi Soloveitchik posited, offers a way of understanding those who guard a human being through the stages of life: a parent, a rebbe, and ultimately the Ribbono Shel Olam.
Lessons learned from the bee whose honey is a symbol of a sweet new year.
While many Torah educators of his time believed that the subject of modesty should not be spoken about in an open public forum, the Chofetz Chaim stridently disagreed. The letter he wrote on the issue is below.
Rav Hutner would say that there is no such thing as "Minhag HaMakom" (local custom) in America, unlike in Europe where each community had Minhagim (customs) that went back hundreds of years. So that in America one may take on new Minhagim (customs).
The Torah’s guidance for the Jewish people as a whole is to work most of the day during the six weekdays, and establish regular times for Torah study in the morning and evening. A guide.
What is the history behind this magnetic Ukrainian city that draws tens of thousands of Jews every year?
On his final day, Moses does not look back - he prepares Israel for the future, passes the mantle to Joshua, and leaves behind a timeless lesson in leadership, humility and faith.
What is the purpose of the Hebrew Nation?
Self-esteem and self-image, as well as beliefs about personal capability, are crucial determinants of success
It would be totally understandable if we were filled with anxiety and dread. But...
The Cantor, the lion, and the fox
If the giving of the Torah still is impactful and offers guidance for Hashem’s Nation, then, on a deep level, all of our souls remain united
It is supremely relevant that our national return to our homeland causes such paroxysms of fury among the nations of the world - and tragically among certain of our own people - who hate being confronted with the truth of the Torah’s decrees.
Survival is not enough. There is also an obligation to preserve the truth about what happened.
Have we really been listening to the song? Have we allowed the Torah to speak to us again?
All the prophecies of the prophets are written in condensed form in this Torah portion. All the descriptions in the portion are, in fact, descriptions of the Mashiach.
The yud represents the divine spark of a yid, of every Jew - It represents our holy soul, eternally, silently, and valiantly reaching upwards.
May this be a year in which our 'ani' expands until another Jew’s hopes become our hopes, another Jew’s pain becomes our pain, and another Jew’s joy becomes our joy.
Nitzavim promises that G-d will bring us back. VaYelech tells Yehoshua that he must lead the people in taking possession of the Land - and that is in our hands.
Upon entering the Land of Israel, we rose to a higher level. We went from a level in which every Jew is judged individually for his thoughts and actions to a level in which the individual takes responsibility for all of Israel.
“Even if a person has been a sinner all his life and does Teshuva at the end, it is effective." (Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva 2:1)
Since Hashem already entered into a covenant with them at Har Sinai, what need was there to enter into a further covenant with them, here?
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life. It has revolutionized the way we think about G -d the human soul, the world and our place in it.
We may never know how close the balance is to its tipping point, or the deed that changes everything. But that uncertainty is precisely what gives every choice its urgency.
Ma’aser Kesafim (tithing money) is the modern equivalent of the tithes, priestly gifts, and gifts to the poor that were given from the produce of the fields and from livestock and its primary purpose today is to support teachers of Torah in Israel and help the poor.
One who observes carefully can see that God’s Kingship is being revealed more and more in our time.
It is Elul. And the voice of prayer merges with the early morning sound of a shofar, echoes in the sound of the bird singing on my porch rail this morning.
Because the wisdom behind the Mitzvah of Para Adumah will be too lofty for any mortal, Satan and his minions will attempt to use this Mitzvah as a cudgel against the divine nature of Am Yisrael’s existence
