[caption id="attachment_1794" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Searching"][/caption] Antonio Stradivarius, wandering in Venice one day, came upon a pile of broken, waterlogged oars, out of which he made some of his most beautiful violins. “I do not seek, I find,” was Picasso’s famous dictum. A lucky find gave Picasso one...
[caption id="attachment_1845" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Personal Rain Clouds"][/caption] I once watched a drunken man running down the street in the rain, weaving from one side to the other. When I asked him what he was doing, he responded, “I’m running through the raindrops!” I’m not drunk. I’m...
I had worked all summer as a camp counselor and learning rebbi, and received a huge pay check of $400 in the mail. My father zt”l handed the envelope to me and asked me if I was prepared to give my first real Tzedaka as it was from money earned.
[caption id="attachment_1840" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Ugly (No Offense Intended)"][/caption] We were gathered outside at the local well discussing Moses’s most recent lecture on The Patriarchs, and everything that has happened and changed over the last few months. All of a sudden a dark cloud filled the...
[caption id="attachment_1828" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Picture Outside My Window taken with my iPhone"][/caption] My children had always dreamed of visiting the Royal Egyptian Zoo. They would watch with envy, as the Egyptian School Chariots would take each grade to visit Pharaoh’s private zoo. It bothered...
[caption id="attachment_1836" align="alignleft" width="264" caption="A Fool"][/caption] The Egyptians have been outside since the Wild Beasts disappeared. They are learning how to do their own work, and they are not doing a very good job: their animals are dying. Some of them are pulling their animals...
[caption id="attachment_1824" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="It Itches!"][/caption] When we walked outside this morning, we saw all the Egyptians scratching away. They were covered with lice. We all immediately ran to the local Sam HaChaim Pharmacy to pick up lice shampoo and sprays, only to find a...
[caption id="attachment_1820" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Fists"][/caption] Exodus: Chapter 8:12 -15: “It is a finger of God!” Seems more like the FIST of God to me, not a finger! The sorcerers understood that whatever they were experiencing was not the Hand of God, certainly not His fist, but a...
[caption id="attachment_1808" align="alignleft" width="238" caption="Confused"][/caption] The blood has been gone for a few days. The city is humming again, except for all the work projects that have stopped. The Egyptians stay away from us. Everyone is wondering whether the blood plague was the end of...
[caption id="attachment_1802" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Gotcha!"][/caption] He set him up! “Moses said to Pharaoh, “glorify yourself over me – for when should I entreat for you, for your servants, and for your people, to excise the frogs from you and from your houses? Tomorrow. Tomorrow? (Read verse 8:4) What happened? “Glorify...
[caption id="attachment_1798" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A Silent City"][/caption] The entire city is shut down. Rumor has it that the entire country is at a standstill. I don’t have to go to work on the pyramids today, it seems that the entire slavery structure has collapsed. The Egyptians...
An Important Message from Rabbi Simcha Weinberg My students know that I refer to my Tzedaka - Charity box as a Thank You Machine. When I learn a new idea, I rise and express my gratitude to God verbally and in a more tangible...
[caption id="attachment_1790" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Hope"][/caption] We know that they did not listen to Moshe. We posit that part of the reason lay with Moshe, who approached them without a mission and with a partially broken spirit. We also pointed out that they did not reject Moshe...
[caption id="attachment_1786" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Leadership"][/caption] What happened? “So Moses spoke to the Children of Israel, but they did not heed Moses, because of shortness of breath and hard work.” What did Moshe “speak” to them? Was it God’s lesson in history and theology at the beginning of...