It has been 76 years and it feels as though we have been at war every one of those years. This is not an exaggeration. Op-ed.
The Fast of Gedaliah, held to mark the trragic assassination of the governor of Judea after the destruction of the First Holy Temple, is today. Our Sages said: "To teach you that the death of a tzaddik, a rightous man, is equivalent to the burning of the House of our G-d."
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.
When we examine the Rosh Hashanah prayers, there is no mention of sin or penitence. How can that be?
Only through the combination of two attributes can we fulfill completely the words of the Song that promise: “because it will never be lost from the mouth of their offspring”
There is one scenario which prevents the gentile world from forgiving us for living. It is Jewish boys, born in our Alt-Neuland, sitting under the canopies of F-16s and F-35s and bombing the hell out of Arab Nazis who live only to annihilate the Jewish people.
Denying religious truth is often convenient.
The uniqueness of Rosh Hashanah's joy - amidst trembling - and the special laws for this year.
The year 5784 unfortunately began with bad signs but the year is ending with good signs.
The world is not deaf to your prayers.
How to channel our fears.
If G-d is your destination, you won’t take a route that leads you elsewhere.
We know the well-known Gemara (Bava Kamma 92a), that those who daven for others will have their prayers answered first
Hashem and His Nation Israel have taken the world's front stage, weeding out the poisonous thorns that would destroy G-d's people of Israel. Watch out, Tehran!
“There is another type of T’shuva, not the penitence over specific sins, but a T’shuva aroused by a vague inner anxiety."
We need a chorus of melodies this year to follow the shofar - the voices of proud Jews.
The hidden meanings in the Unetane Tokef prayer's comparison of the Jewish People to sheep.
Selichot is a custom that the Jewish people began to practice during the Geonic period, more than a thousand years ago * By the end of the Rishonim period, the custom was established in Sephardic communities to recite Selichot throughout the month of Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance * In Ashkenaz, the custom is to start reciting Selichot on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah.
The assassination of Nasrallah and Jewish unity.
Embracing Faith and Unity in challenging times.
As always, the power of the people of Israel is revealed precisely when it seems to be at its lowest point.
The two great scholars were both standing, eyes shut...
As much as we are bound by our ancestors declaration of allegiance to G-d and the Torah, our generation is now bound to educate and inspire our own descendants to follow the proud path of Judaism.
According to Rashi, why does the Israelites’ mutual responsibility begin only upon entering the Land of Israel?
Who will lead us? Will the leaders of yesteryear move on, and new ones arrive on the scene? In which direction will they take us?
A careful reading truly shows that it is not the “sanctity of the Torah” that serves as a guarantee of its fulfillment but the “Song of the Torah.”
The coming year of 5785 will be a crucial one for all Jews. Make no mistake about it. We will defeat all our enemies to the amazement and dismay of the world. Our status of “chosen people” will advance before the enlightened family of nations.
How can one compare man, with his abiiity to choose, to the heaven and earth? Commentaries weigh in on the question.
Shabbat Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilech, in addition to being the final Shabbat of the year, marks two other endings as well.
Torah is accessible to all.
D’var Torah ahead of midnight Selichot,
A Jew can't ride on the coattails of the righteous.
Reading the first verses in this Parsha always gives me a feeling of awe, perhaps even fear...
Rabbi Kook teaches that penitence which relates only to personal wrongdoing is incomplete because the Teshuva of each individual Jew is actually only a part of a much greater National Teshuva of Am Yisrael. What does that signify?
There is one “thank you” that has been greatly forgotten.
The Russians wrote: “It is also obvious that the Jewish population of the US is divided with regards to the issues of Ukraine and Israel, just as the population of Israel itself.” Russia knows American Jews are weaker when we are divided. A musical concert united us - can we preserve that unity?
Joel's prophecy about the north has become totally relevant.
Naturally, we prefer to be free to make our own decisions and live as we please. Mitzvot call upon us to recognize our dependency upon Hashem and subjugate our will to His.
Rabbi Yitzchok Alster's interpretations of Rav Hutner's works in English.
How can we view our mundane activities as connecting, positive and meaningful? When can we take a few moments to pay more attention to the blessings in our lives and thereby invite more blessing?
Redeeming captives is a great mitzvah, and it takes precedence in importance over all other types of charity, but not over every other consideration. It is forbidden to pay an exorbitant price for redeeming captives.
Yesterday's parsha has a message that will get us throught these challenging times.
How do we cultivate a sense of joy in our service of God, when we observe mitzvot and study Torah?
Rabbi Soleveitchik suggests that the bringer of the first fruits should not declare his gratitude for the salvation of Yaakov from Esav, because there are still lingering, and often painful, impacts of that exile.
Before I confess my sins, I must confess my greatness.
We have to realize that what we do affects others – and what they do affects us.
Young religious Zionist Torah scholars find connections to the Holy Land in the week's Torah portion.
Happiness is a critical and essential part of service to God, and we must strive to find this joy within us when we observe the mitzvot.
This is the Torah of Eretz Yisrael - and we have to say Amen.
Already since the days of the Rishonim, it was noted that the custom is not to attach the reading of the Parashat Ki Tavo with the curses to Rosh Hashanah. Why?
There is no nation in the land, except for Bnei Israel, as all the nations, compared to it, are as nought, and do not merit being called ‘a nation’.
If our purpose is survival at all costs, we become our own purpose, and that is a recipe for disaster. It leads to violence, wars, theft, murder, and a general breakdown of society.
A rung above idolatrous religions are Christianity and Islam, which are closer to the light of God. They, too, have a major deficiency, in that they do not recognize the role of Israel in revealing God’s Word to the world, and instead claim to replace it.
One category of sin isn’t “better” than another.
The room that I am talking about is the war that Israel is fighting. The elephant is our religion’s commandments on how we are supposed to fight wars.
Upon study of the topic, one finds that the Redemption is indeed a natural, dynamic, developmental process which requires our efforts to bring it about. Understanding this requires delving into the Torah's depths.
In the generation of National Revival, as the revitalized Jewish Nation returns to its Homeland, a new type of religious Jew must appear to take up the challenge, wrote Rabbi Kook.
What do you do when you are offended or hurt by other people's words or actions?
Mitzvot were a pre-condition of redemption. They were also its implication.
