The preacher Harry Williams believed: "We all have experience of two types of feeling. There is the feeling which unites us to our world and makes us rejoice in it, an experience of love, of acceptance, of communion. And there is the other kind of feeling...
There is always a moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in… -- Graham Greene: The Power and the Glory As wonderful as my children are, the only time they were perfect was the first time I held them in my arms. It...
A group of Jewish children with a teacher in Samarkand, (in modern Uzbekistan), ca. 1910. (Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/LOC) My Cheder teachers dressed differently, but they look very similar to the rabbi in this picture. Dress up the children in a 1960’s wardrobe, and they will look...
How a pile of pillows taught me how to repair my Tzitzit: Debbie and I had to be in the airport at 6am, and we had worked until 2am, so we shoved the basics into our suitcases and rushed to the airport. I unpacked this morning...
A more earthbound version of the Devil appears in Dostoevsky'sThe Brothers Karamazov. His character Ivan had a very strong sense of the earth’s evil. Unable to bear the thought of being his father’s murderer, he is overtaken by a bout of fever. In his delirium...
Some people laugh and enjoy my Curious George t-shirt while others think it looks ridiculous. I don’t care. I am wearing it on my morning walks to help me prepare for Rosh Hashana. The Curious George books did not hold my attention for too long when...
Both the father and his son were different: The father prayed for years to have a child. I knew from numerous conversations that, no matter how much he wanted a child, he was even more desperate for his wife to bear a child. I observed...
"For the ways of God are straight." (Hosea 14:10) the Shelah HaKodesh (Torah Ohr - Rosh Hashanah 3) asks why the word "straight" is in the plural form in Hebrew, "Yesharim," rather than "Yashar." The Shelah answers that Hosea is describing two different creations of "Straight:"...
Most of us are familiar with two directions of service: "Itra'uta D'litata," and "Itra'uta D'l'eila," or, Stirrings from below, connections stirred by us, below here on earth towards God, and "Stirrings from Above," initiated by God, Above, to reach out to us, here, below. The...
“To behold the sweetness of God and to contemplate in His Sanctuary.” (Verse 4) Rabbi Elazar taught: The righteous in the World to Come will eat of the same Manna that Israel ate while in the desert. Do not think that the portions will be measured...
The Shofar stirs people to return to God, as the verse (Amos 3) says: “If a Shofar is blasted in a city, will the people not tremble?” The Sages taught that the Shofar blast of Rosh Hashana confuses Satan who believes that it may be the...
In praying for the whole world to repent, we are only following the example of Hashem, Who looks forward to the time when His ultimate plan for the creation – a world in which all mankind is righteous – will be realized, as the prophet...
“I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.” (Song of Songs 6:4) Rabbi Eliezer of Worms, the Rokeach, explains this verse as describing the Teshuva process: With each step we take back toward our Beloved, God, He takes a step back toward us. Author...
“He who loves purity of heart and whose lips are gracious – the King is his friend.” (Proverbs 22:11) One of the themes of the Shofar, specifically the Teruah sound is “rei-ah” – that God is our friend. In fact, Rashi (Shabbat) explains that the verse,...