Categories
0
  • No products in the cart.
Cart Total:$0.00

Blog

Explore
Escorting the Dead: Eternal Company
“So I praised enjoyment.” (Ecclesiastes 8:15)  Rabbi Yonah taught that we cab build a conceptual structure from this verse adds, “this will accompany him in his toil, during the days of his
Explore
Tefillah: Class Notes 11/08/09

God didn't heal Moshe's speech impediment because Moshe did not ask for healing. Moshe did not ask for healing because he felt that no matter how well he spoke, he was an inadequate representative of God to the powerful Pharaoh. (Nachmanides, Exodus, Chapter 4) Was...

Explore
The Nineteen Steps: Class Notes 11/05/09

Avot is a celebration of human potential: God desires to be known by the Avot: The Lord of Abraham. We may thrill at the potential but we have difficulty connecting, because we are so attached to limitations. We therefore turn to the second blessing: Empowerment –...

Explore
Prayer Tools: The Soul As Advocate
Even during prayer and Mitzvah performance, it is the body that is functioning. The soul itself remains hidden in the corner. It is in a deep slumber engendered by the very physical existence of this world.
Explore
Blessings Before Shema: Blessing and Peace

In Nusach S’fard, we say: “Hurry and bring us blessing and peace, speedily from the four corners of the world, break our yoke from upon our necks, and lead us speedily, upright, to our land”.

Spiritual Growth
Visiting the Ill: Time of Day
What time of the day is best for visiting the sick? One should not visit in the first three hours of the day because many people look better in the morning and the visitor may not realize how ill
Explore
Visiting The Ill: Engagement
The Rabbis taught: If one took ill and is leaning toward death, they should say to him, “Confess your sins, for it is the practice of all who are condemned to die to confess.” (Shabbat 32a)
Explore
Mishlei: Life Training
“To provide simple people with cleverness, a youth with knowledge and design.” (Proverbs 1:4) Rabbeinu Bachya understands this verse as describing rebuke: The groups of people one
Explore
Blessings Before Shema: Renewal
When we say, “and in His goodness, He renews every day, perpetually, the work of Creation”, we are not simply referring to the renewal of nature, or even to the miraculous functioning of
Explore
Visiting the Ill: Arguing His Case
Rav Yitzchak, the son of Rav Yehudah taught: A person should always ask for mercy from God that he not become ill, for should he, in fact, become ill, the Heavenly Tribunal says to him, “Bring
Explore
Amidah: Teshuva: The Lost Sheep
A sheep that has wandered from the flock and finds itself in the forest, terrified of dangerous animals, is desperate for the shepherd to find her, or to signal where she can return to the
Explore
The Ahavas Shalom: Building & Planting
In honor of the Bar Mitzvah of Yissachar Dov Shalom Novoseller, the son of one of my closest friends in the world (a true Tzaddik), and in honor of the Yahrtzeit of his relative,
Spiritual Growth
Chazon Ish: The Definition of Greatness
Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld zt”l, met with a group of young men who were going to a dangerous country in order to save hundreds of Jewish families. “The Chazon Ish told me that in order
Spiritual Growth
Visiting the Ill: Thoughts & Practices
One who visits the ill should not sit at his head, for the Divine Presence rests there. Nor should he sit at the feet of the ill for the Angel of Death is there. (Zohar, Volume 3)
Explore
Blessings of the Torah: 3 Steps
It seems that it would make more sense to first thank God for the gift of Torah, then for teaching it to us, and finally for giving us the commandment of engrossing ourselves in its study.
Explore
Pesukei D’Zimrah: Blessing From Before You
“Wealth and honor come from before You.” (Chronicles I 29) All wealth and honor that appear in this world drips from heaven to the specific place determined by the Highest Wisdom.
Spiritual Growth
Visiting the Ill: Conversation
There is a positive commandment to visit the ill, as it is written, “In the path on which they shall walk.” (Exodus 18:20) The Sages (Bava Metzia 30b) explain that this ‘walking’ refers specifically to visiting the ill.
Explore
Morning Blessings: Higher Sight
“Who gives sight to the blind.” (Based on Psalms146:8) We do not celebrate or acknowledge that God grants us sight. We thank God for giving sight to the blind.
Spiritual Growth
Prayer For The Ill 1

One of the most important parts of visiting the ill is to pray for them. Most of us are quite familiar with the prayer we recite in the synagogue for someone who is sick. We recite a prayer

Spiritual Growth
Vilna Gaon – Prayer For The Ill 2

 

The verse in Deuteronomy (Chapter 2) describes Moses’ demand that we follow “the path that we must walk.” The Vilna Gaon (Aderet Eliyahu, Devarim) explains that we may walk to fulfill any

Shabbat
Sefer Chasidim: Preparing For Shabbat
The Sages said, (Kohelet Rabbah 1:36) “If you prepare on Friday, you will have food on Shabbat.” (This Midrash is a metaphor of using this life to prepare for The World to Come – the Eternal
Show more
Loading...