There was no way she would allow people to pray for her precious baby to die! (See ‘An Uncomfortable Conversation: Part One’) She read every newspaper published in Israel from beginning to end. She watched the BNN all day, and listened to the all-news station...
She was incredibly proud that her son had succeeded her husband and was appointed the Kohen Gadol - The High Priest. Most of her friends congratulated her, but her oldest friend asked a strange question: “What are you going to do about all the people...
He was 86 years old, driving carefully when a car full of teenagers swerved directly in front of him. He had to think quickly: Traffic in the opposite direction was heavy, so he swung the car sharply to the right onto the shoulder, thinking better...
The best I had done seem'd to me blank and suspicious; My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality meager? Walt Whitman During Elul, I prepare for Rosh Hashana by focusing on how I have grown over the past year. I want to face...
It is not you alone who know what it is to be evil; I am he who knew what it was to be evil. Walt Whitman I was ten-years old and decided that I would review the Yom Kippur confession at the beginning of Elul...
A dear friend has invited me to participate in a conference that is scheduled to end with the official ringing of the Nasdaq bell. I appreciate the invitation, and am honored to speak to such a gathering, but the bell-ringing doesn’t sit well with me. “And...
[caption id="attachment_2932" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Truth - Beauty - Freedom - Love"][/caption] I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed? “For beauty,” I replied. “And I for truth, - the two...
“And God will circumcise your hears, and the hearts of your children, to love God, your Lord, with all your hearts and with all your souls, so that you may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:6) The first letter of each the Hebrew words “Your hearts and the hearts...
Jan van Eyck was one of the first artists to portray himself in a godlike pose: He painted himself facing forward. Portraiture before this point was done on profile to mimic the portraits of Roman emperors minted onto coins. Only divine figures were painted facing forward....
All the things with which I was so familiar took on new and frightening identities when it was dark. The hooks that held my clothes became scary monsters. The ticking of the clock became a bomb. The creaks and groans of our home were ominous...
Everyone is focused on their walks, jogs, or runs. We do not say more than “Good Morning” to each other, although usually we just nod our heads in greeting. We don’t know each other’s names, but we all have nicknames: There is “Backwards Charlie”, who...
“But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is...
Dvir Aminolav was the first Israeli soldier killed in the 2008 Gaza War. His mother Dalya missed Dvir, terribly. One night before she went to bed, she said in a loud voice: "G-d, give me a sign, give me a hug from Dvir so that...
“God is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear.” (Psalm 27:1) The Midrash (See Psalm 27.2) continues: Rabbi Abin, the Levite said that the Holy One, Blessed is He, took the light, and covered Himself with it as though it were a garment, and...
If everyone else can wear a tee-shirt with their hero’s name emblazoned on it, why can’t I? It is not because I don’t have any pictures: their tee-shirts just have a name a number. Perhaps that’s it: What number could I put on a Ramchal...
“The moon will be humiliated and the sun will be shamed for God, Master of Legions, will have reigned in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and there will be honor for His elders.” (Isaiah 24:23) The Malbim explains that people worshipped the sun and the moon...
“Naftali is a hind let loose who delivers beautiful sayings.” (Genesis 49:21 Beautiful sayings is “Imrei Shafer”. We again find the word shofar associated with beauty. (See Soundbites 1 & 2) Naftali’s name is related to Tefillah – Prayer. The ‘beautiful sayings” refer to his ability...
I heard the following story about a soldier under his command, from a non-observant ranking IDF officer: The young man lives in a small Moshav in Israel. His family finished the Seder around 4AM, and he sat down to learn Gemara for a few minutes before...
Something was different about this morning’s walk on Mount Royal in Montreal. The scenery is, of course, different. I walked 1.5 miles up the mountain trail before turning around; I forgot that climbing up a mountain is far more tiring than my usual laps around...
“God is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear.” (Psalm 27:1) Scripture says elsewhere: “And the Lord said: ‘Let there be light!’ And there was light. And the Lord saw the light that it was good, and the Lord divided the light from...