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Saved by Love

11/28/2023 10:19:10 AM

Nov28

Rabbi Eisenman

Leah was very nervous about the upcoming Pesach. It had been years since she had moved from Yerushalayim to New Jersey, and much had transpired. She had grown up in Chareidi Yersushalayim yet had to find her path in Yiddishkeit.
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Loneliness

11/22/2023 10:40:52 AM

Nov22

Rabbi Eisenman

”I wanted to go. I felt it was important. Numbers count. We live in a country where we are allowed and expected to express our feelings. I wanted to go. Yet, there were many reasons not to go.
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Washington Rally

11/14/2023 11:02:10 AM

Nov14

Rabbi Eisenman

As I write these words, I am in Washington DC. I have just Davened Vasikin in front of the White House. It felt like Neila, Simchas Torah and Tisha Bav all wrapped in one.
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The Wake-Up Kick

11/09/2023 01:14:19 PM

Nov9

Rabbi Eisenman

In the early morning of Thursday, May 18, 1978, a young, strapping nineteen-year-old Yeshiva Bachur boarded a train at Penn Station in New York. He was not alone on the train. There were approximately 1500 young people and several Rabbonim who were also passengers on that train.
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Kaddish

10/26/2023 11:41:26 AM

Oct26

Rabbi Eisenman

It was early on Tzom Gedaliah when I received the call. The nursing home identified him as Lawrence Stein*. However, I knew him as Laibel. As the screen displayed ”Saint…Healthcare, ” I understood he was in a non-Jewish facility. ”Am I speaking to “Father” Rabbi Eisenman? ”
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What Can We Do?

10/19/2023 10:02:53 AM

Oct19

Rabbi Eisenman

My son Tuvia is one of the 360,000 reservists called up to defend the Jewish nation. He serves in Unit 9306, Combat Company Aleph, in the Northern Shomron. As we all know, Israel was caught off guard by the brutal and murderous attack.
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What We Can Do!

10/16/2023 10:18:30 AM

Oct16

Rabbi Eisenman

One improvement we can all do starting NOW- is the total Elimination of cell phones doing davening. No more catching up on the news during Chatzaras HaShatz. No more looking at emails in shul. We can create a cell phone free zone in our shul!
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A Giant of a Man

10/13/2023 12:00:09 PM

Oct13

Rabbi Eisenman

I was shocked when I heard of his passing. It was sudden and unexpected. I had only met him twice in person and spoken on the phone a few times.Yet, I knew I had to go to the Shiva home.
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Some Give Blood - Some Take Blood

10/11/2023 05:41:45 PM

Oct11

Rabbi Eisenman

We know that the Jewish people are in a very difficult situation. However, we can never despair or give up hope. Our enemies attempt to take precious Jewish blood. Yet, we respond by giving our precious Jewish blood.
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Difficult Days

10/11/2023 05:31:51 PM

Oct11

Rabbi Eisenman

We know that the Jewish people are in a very difficult situation. However, we can never despair or give up hope. As our enemies raise their evil hands to commit unspeakable acts of brutality and murder, we, too, raise our hands..
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The Masked Man

09/26/2023 12:39:39 PM

Sep26

Rabbi Eisenman

I am looking straight at him. I have known him for years. He is mired in emotional turmoil. I ask him what's wrong. ”I feel completely inadequate for the task before me.” I was unprepared for his candid revelation.
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The Most Powerful Words

09/14/2023 12:29:15 PM

Sep14

Rabbi Eisenman

He would never make eye contact, no matter how hard I thought I tried. This had been going on for ten years. Even during Covid, when I approached him in what I hoped would perhaps pave the way to reconciliation, things did not work out as planned.
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Yisroel ben Esther, Hodu L'Hashem!

09/06/2023 11:49:08 AM

Sep6

Rabbi Eisenman

I had heard the news via a text. Yisroel ben Esther was awake and alert. Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude to Hashem. Yet, our Tefillos are still very much needed, and the path to a complete recovery is still before us.
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Yisroel ben Esther

09/06/2023 11:43:35 AM

Sep6

Rabbi Eisenman

Many of us are looking for Zechusim for Yisroel ben Esther- that he should have a Refuah Sheleima. Yisroel is now in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He needs a Refuah Sheleima. He needs our Tefillos.
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The Escape Artist

08/25/2023 10:51:44 AM

Aug25

Rabbi Eisenman

He had avoided this moment for thirty years. For three decades, he had successfully evaded, dodged, and sidestepped this confrontation through excuses, trickery, and any pretext he could think of. He was the master escape artist.
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How to Avoid Decades of Resentment

08/11/2023 10:57:20 AM

Aug11

Rabbi Eisenman

It was over forty years ago, yet I recall the incident as if it was yesterday. I am sitting across from Rav Pam ZT”L at Yeshiva Torah V’Daas. I could not contain my feelings of hurt and resentment.
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HaShem is Truly Everywhere

08/09/2023 10:28:08 AM

Aug9

Rabbi Eisenman

The plane touched down at 4:02 A.M.- 23 minutes early! I was picked up by a Baal Chessed and arrived in Passaic ay 5:22. By 5:30 i was already in Shul with Talis and Tefillin ready to daven with sunrise.
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The Jewish State

08/08/2023 12:02:06 PM

Aug8

Rabbi Eisenman

Yesterday, my wife and I went into a store to purchase a few things. We spoke to the proprietor and we inquired as to what we needed. When we were finishing up and getting ready to leave, I noticed that the man, was closing the lights and also preparing to leave.
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Tefillah

08/08/2023 10:00:38 AM

Aug8

Rabbi Eisenman

We are familiar with the reality that one can daven anywhere in the world and Hashem hears our Tefillos. Nevertheless, Chazal tell us that our Tefillos go ”through” the place of the Beis HaMikdash and from there to Shomayim.
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The Kosel

08/08/2023 09:52:14 AM

Aug8

Rabbi Eisenman

This Morning We Decided To Make Our Way Back to the Wall. When one walks in the early morning to the Wall, one sees people from all types. The common denominator of these people is that their main focus is to pour out their hearts to Hashem.
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Sunrise at the Kosel

08/03/2023 10:25:20 AM

Aug3

Rabbi Eisenman

This morning, my wife and I made our way to the Kosel to daven Vasikin. As we arrived, we were awestruck by the amount of people who gathered at the Wall by 5 a.m. There were all types of Jews from all over the world. There were Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Chassidim and non-Chassidim.
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Tu B'Av and the Churva Shul

08/02/2023 10:21:23 AM

Aug2

Rabbi Eisenman

“How Great are your ways Hashem!” Today on Tu Bav, less than a week after we fasted, sat on the ground and cried for Yerushaalayim, I finally felt the consoling Hand of He who consoles all. I did not thankfully have to wait for some Messeianic time or some “time in the world to come.” I was privileged to be consoled today in the here and now.
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Giveret Mizrachi

08/02/2023 10:05:56 AM

Aug2

Rabbi Eisenman

Mrs. Mizrachi,* or “Geveret Mizrachi” as she prefers to be called, collects for various aniyim, needy people, in Eretz Yisrael. Geveret Mizrachi has been coming to the shul for as long as I can remember.

From before vasikin at 4:58 until the final stragglers file out of the 10:30 Shacharis, Geveret Mizrachi sits like a soldier by the front door.

She is quick with a smile and even...Read more...

You Never Know Where the Other Person Is

07/28/2023 09:58:37 AM

Jul28

Rabbi Eisenman

The other day I received a phone call from a congregant. They began the conversation by saying, “Good Morning Rabbi Eisenman. Do you have a minute?”
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The Nine Days

07/20/2023 02:05:54 PM

Jul20

Rabbi Eisenman

Based on the vantage point from my side of the desk, it seems to me that many people dread the Nine Days. The thought of becoming non-carnivorous and adopting a modified herbivore (a true herbivore does not eat fish) lifestyle is so traumatic for some people that I have had to transform myself into a culinary expert on various meat analogue delicacies to properly guide people.
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The Letter and The Lesson

07/13/2023 11:25:58 AM

Jul13

Rabbi Eisenman

When Saralah Goldstein* called me with the good news that her son was accepted in Mesivta, I shared her joy. When she told me the name of the Mesivta, I was ecstatic and in disbelief. Her husband had passed away several years ago, and she raised her two boys and two girls by herself. She was far from a woman of means, and although her oldest son Yanky*, was a fine young man, he was not at the top of the class.
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Smash the Sparrow Campaign

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07/12/2023 03:20:08 PM

Jul12

Rabbi Eisenman

One day in 1958, Mao Zedong, the father of the People's Republic of China, decided that it was time to eradicate sparrows from China. The dictator was informed by Chinese "experts" that each sparrow eats about 4.5 kg of grains in a year. For every one million sparrows killed, food could be provided for an estimated 60,000 people.Mao Zedong ordered to kill all the sparrows.
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Reflections of the Fourth

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07/05/2023 02:22:22 PM

Jul5

Rabbi Eisenman

As the day began yesterday, I knew it was July 4. Its most practical manifestation was my "freedom" to park my car on my block without worrying about alternate side parking regulations as street cleaning was suspended for the holiday.
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Final Payment

07/03/2023 02:35:21 PM

Jul3

Rabbi Eisenman

The love of his life was learning Torah, yet, his learning was limited to Yiddish translations. Every morning from 3 to 6, he would learn through his well-worn Yiddish copy of the Chayei Adam and the Beis Yehudah Chumash. He would then head to Shul, ensuring he was first there.
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The Heroine

06/23/2023 10:27:44 AM

Jun23

Rabbi Eisenman

Recently I was told about an incident that occurred in a local Shul.The source of the story is impeccable; therefore, I do not doubt its veracity.It seems that after the COVID crisis had passed, the Shul reopened. However, the older veteran-gabbai, could not resume his duties as he was told by his doctors not to return to Shul due to his compromised immune condition.
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Tue, December 5 2023 22 Kislev 5784