Rabbi Lazer Gurkow

Shabbat Hagadol:

Pre-Passover: What made Moses the Redeemer?

What made Moses the right person to lead the Exodus? Why did G-d choose him, and at what precise moment was his destiny sealed?

Rosh Chodesh Nisan:

Finding G-d in the Everyday

G-d wants the real you-because only then can you experience the real G-d.

Parashat Vayakhel-Pikudei:

You can only give what you have

To host G-d, you must make space in your heart.

Purim:

G-d pays His debts

The fourteenth of Adar was not random. It was repayment. G-d always pays His debts.

Parashat Mishpatim:

Make G-d your partner

What is the difference between a G-d Who listens and a G-d Who partners?

Parashat Beshalach:

Nothing to fear but fear itself

You fight-but not with fear. You fight with trust, knowing that the outcome is in His hands alone.

Parashat Bo:

Why Jews need a spiritual army as well

Why did the Torah call the Jews who left Egypt an army?

Shemot:

Don’t waste a crisis

How to gain from a crisis.

Parashatt Miketz:

Stop dreaming

When Mashiach comes, we will realize that we are currently in a dream. Our life is a living paradox, yet it seems to make sense to us as if it were normal.

Parashat Vayishlach:

The only absolute truth

Do we have the resolve to look past the opinions of others and seek the core truth of every person and situation?

We are never alone

Whether the Jew is wealthy or poor, mighty or weak, it seems we face our troubles in isolation. Not during the Holocaust, not in 1948, noy today. Except that we are never actually alone.

Parashat Toldot:

Inviting G-d to dinner

Everyone invited to dinner gets to eat. G-d’s portion is the Torah that we study and the food we give to the poor.

Parashat Noach:

When we ask, G-d listens

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak provided a daring translation of Rashi’s comment on why Noah didn't enter the ark until forced to by the rain - and it is a lesson for all of us.

Simchat Torah:

The thrill of intimacy

The radical transition from the Yom Kippur solemnity to the Simchat Torah revelry can be dizzying, but it makes sense. Just as our joy at the hostages' return accompanied by sorrow at our losses.. There is a method to the madness.

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkot:

The Hostages are coming home

Thoughts from Judaism on the peace plan.

Sukkot:

Check your resentments at the door

The walls define the space, the sechach fills that space with holiness and warmth. And we need to respect the walls.

Shabbat Shuva:

Extracting sparks from stones

Does your soul dance with love and passion since the holy days of Rosh Hashanah? If not, Yom Kippur is another chance.

Parashat Nitzavim:

Is your love for G-d actionable?

Resolve to give a nickel to tzedakah every morning, resolve to put on tefillin every day, resolve to light candles before every Shabbat. Even if your heart isn’t in it, it is a good beginning.

Parashat Ki Tavo:

Many organs, one organism

We comprise many groups and individuals, yet we are one people; much like a body has many organs but is a single organism.

Parashat Ki Teitze:

When you are on your own

The moment we are on our own, we become vulnerable to Amalek.

Parashat Shoftim:

Tomorrow is too late

The more difficult it is to do, the more critical it is to jump on it right away. If you must make a call to apologize for being mean to a friend or to ask a debtor for a deferral, don’t push it off. It will only get harder.

Parashat Re'eh:

Improve your eyesight - Elul is here

In Jewish law, when we stipulate a payment on the fulfilment of a condition, if the condition is met, the payment is backdated to the day the condition was set. If we learn how to “see” G-d’s love even in prosaic things, G-d will backdate our blessings to this Shabbat

Parashat Eikev:

When rain falls in Israel

When one requires water in Israel, one looks up. When one needs security, stability, or prosperity in Israel, one also looks up.

Parashat Vaetchanan:

Let your child go

Moses finally realized that the best thing for him was to let go.

Parashat Balak:

Operation Rising Lion: Bilam's prophecies in our time

As we chant the Torah portion this week, it is our privilege and duty to thank G-d for the magnificent miracles we experienced in our lifetimes. They are of the same caliber as biblical miracles and like the blessings recited by the Bilam, except that we were privileged to witness them.

Parashat Chukat:

The leap of trust - learning from Rabbi Sholom Rubashkin

Just as we are told to take a leap of faith about the commandments, so are we asked to take a leap of trust about life's events. It is easier, however, to take the leap of faith than the leap of trust.

Parashat Korach:

Authentic leaders

Leadership is an act of service.

Parashat Shlach:

The best life advice

Your primary interest should be to create a pleasant environment for others to enjoy. And that message is in the words of Hashem to Moshe.

The Jewish Trump Card for victory against Iran

The Torah tells us this very week that we need to fear. We need to blow the trumpets, and G-d will save us.

Parashat Behaalotcha:

Light up your students

There are three pedagogical lights in teaching. (A) Teach the material. (B) Train students to research and study independently. (C) Inspire students to love learning.

Parashat Naso:

When G-d shows His love

Every time the kohen steps up to the podium, raises his arms, and locks his fingers, G-d’s passionate love for us is aroused.

Parashat Bamidbar:

Make your desert bloom

When we read the Torah portion this Shabbat about transforming individuals into a group and a desert into a city, let’s take the message to heart.

A Rabbi's thoughts on the DC murders:

Rage does not entitle you to murder

Hey, Elias, if you cared for children in Gaza, why didn't you fly to Ben Gurion airport, cut over to Gaza, and enlist at the local Hamas recruiting office? Opinion.

Lag Ba'omer: When the soul is bound to G-d

It is taught that on the day of his passing, Rabbi Shimon taught secrets of the Torah that had never been heard before.

Achrei-Mot-Kedoshim:

A peek into the Super-Conscious

This is not a world one can describe because one can only experience it from within oneself. In this world, we lose the very self to the magnetic pull of profound oneness.

Tazria Metzora:

Good people in a rotten system

We don’t have tzaraat blotches in the modern day, but the dynamics haven’t changed. While many things change, history repeats itself because human nature never changes.

Parashat Shmini:

Moving with astonishing speed

Our sages wondered why the Exodus is mentioned specifically in response to avoiding insects.

Parashat Vayikra:

When religion becomes self worship

When you give ten thousand dollars to charity, do you think about how much gratitude you deserve or how grateful you are to help?

Pekudei:

The things we leave unsaid

About the accounting we must make every so often to clear up unsettled issues.

When G-d woke up

When we say G-d is asleep, we mean that He conducts the affairs of life in ways that make no sense to us.

Parashat Tetsave:

You are good

When we get dressed, we feel awake. When we dress like a professional, we behave professionally. When we dress casually, we behave casually. The same is true for good deeds, the garments of our souls. When we fill our days with good deeds, we create a mindset of goodness.

Terumah:

You are gold

The final teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe on this Parashah four weeks before he suffered the stroke from which he did not recover.

Mishpatim:

Never tell a lie

The law for which the Torah itself created a fence. As for lies, lies and damned lies. one cannot help thinking of the coffin that did not contain Shiri Bibas' body, this the day before we read the prohibition against lying in the Torah.

Beshalach;

This is my G-d

What do I do for a G-d who forged a personal relationship with me and showed me His tender love? I beautify Him. I make Him as beautiful as I can.

Parashat Bo:

As the hostages come home

They were not alone in the tunnels but with G-d and the love of their people. That gave the hostages a reason to live. It gave them the ability to transcend.

Shemot: Why Saturday?

Rather than celebrate Shabbat in the way G-d made exclusive to Jews, the Christians bumped their Sabbath to Sunday and the Muslims pulled their Shabbat back to Friday.

Vayechi:

Constructive speech prevents harmful speech

On the surface, battle are won with weapons and battle tactics. Beneath the surface, they are won because our minds and tongues were preoccupied with prayer.

Vayigash:

The dependable sibling

Just because we are dependable doesn’t mean we are constant. Just because we are constant doesn’t mean we are dependable. In which category do Joseph's brothers fall? And where are we?

A year filled with miracles. Let us count them this Hanukkah

It has been a year filled with tragedy and suffering, but as G-d performed miracles for us in those days, He performs miracles for us now. When we say the second blessing over the lights, think about those miracles.

Vayeishev:

Three guarantors

Three guarantors for the coming of Mashiach are alluded to in the three pieces of collateral that Yehudah gave to Tamar, the ancestress of the Mashiach.

Vayishlach:

Do you have everything?

The truth is that no one person can have everything.

Vayetze: Show your children your love of Judaism

First, we must love Judaism ourselves. Then, we can impart this love to our children.

Toldot: Shaming a son to his father

G-d would not inform Isaac that Esau was beyond salvation, beyond hope. G-d would not shatter his father’s heart with such news though Isaac already had an inkling that this was so.

Chayei Sarah:

The sacred body returns to Earth

Are we bodies with souls or souls in bodies? This is not a question about how we will die but about how we live.

Vayera:

Pointers on hospitality

Guests do more for the host than the host does for them. The guests get a meal and a place to sleep while the host derives immense satisfaction and pleasure from providing for them - and merits a mitzva besides.

The anniversary of the other Simchat Torah Massacre

Many Jews were killed in a 14th century Simchat Torah massacre . Jewish history tends to repeat itself, but so does our resilience to the world's evil.

Sukkot:

The deep well of love

We love G-d; He has a home in our hearts. At this time, it is appropriate to say that our intellectual wisdom has found a home in our emotional wisdom.

Are we a religion of NO?

If G-d is your destination, you won’t take a route that leads you elsewhere.

Ki Tavo:

Are you a parasite?

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.

Ki Tetse:

Canceling the cancel generation

It is rare to find someone with no strengths or no faults. Most of us are a blend of both, but cancel culture give no one a second chance if he has made one mistake.