Super Bowl Sunday
02/11/2025 11:58:44 AM
Feb11
Today, February 9, 2025, is, according to millions of people, a Nationally Celebrated Holiday. ”Super Bowl Sunday” is guaranteed to garner the largest American TV audience for any event broadcast during the year.Over 124 million Americans will assemble in living rooms, dens, college dorms, motels, and saloons across America.
Read more... The Snow, The Car, and The Rabbi
01/30/2025 03:00:16 PM
Jan30
January 20th, Martin Luther King Day was bitterly cold this year. Heavy snow the night before left everything buried in white. Years ago, I learned that while a national holiday is a welcome day off for many, I am ”on call” the entire day. The minyanim are crowded, and people drop by to schmooze.
Read more... The Wedding
01/08/2025 12:00:25 PM
Jan8
It was Erev Shabbos Parshas Zachor in 2023 when Esther Jaffe, wife of Efraim, my next-door neighbor for thirty-three years, passed away. Efraim is not just my next-door neighbor; our homes, built 110 years ago, are almost physically attached. Our homes are so close that we can shake hands if we both extend our arms out our windows!
Read more... The Matzav
01/01/2025 02:47:52 PM
Jan1
There are those who believe life has returned to “normal” in the land of Israel. They claim the crisis is over, and so we can let down our guard (was it really ever up?), relax, open our Chanuka presents, overstuff our stomachs with jelly-filled donuts, and spin the dreidel and ourselves into a dizzying state of delusional denial. Woe to those who validate their lack of empathy for the Jews of Eretz Yisroel by deluding themselves into believing that all is fine.
Read more... The Friend
01/01/2025 12:42:38 PM
Jan1
It was Sunday, day seven, just minutes before nightfall, when the phone rang. Although we anxiously awaited the anticipated phone call, I picked up the receiver in my usual carefree manner. Only after I heard rapid-fire Yiddish coming loudly through the receiver did I realize this was THE CALL!
Read more... The Wait
01/01/2025 12:14:43 PM
Jan1
”Ma, why can't we just light already?” I pleaded. In her calm yet resolute fashion, my mother quietly said, ”We will wait for your father to come home and then light the Menorah together as a family.” I was nine years old and living in Brooklyn. My father, a photographer, had the difficult job of traversing the tri-state area, taking pictures of newborns, and hoping to eventually sell the photographs to support his family.
Read more... The Yarmulka and I Never Looked Back
" >12/19/2024 10:03:07 AM
Dec19
He was one of the original Baalei Teshuva of the Shul a quarter of a century ago. However, Herschel* had moved years ago to the "other side of town," so our paths rarely crossed these days.
Read more... So Hard to Leave
12/10/2024 12:30:16 PM
Dec10
As the realization took hold that in just a few short hours my flight is due to take off and I will be leaving the Land of Israel a sadness gripped me. Here I am, having the Zechus to spend time in the Land that Moshe Rabbeinu pined to step foot in, yet, was never allowed to enter, and, I am here, yet, I am leaving.
Read more... Moma Rochel
12/10/2024 12:18:25 PM
Dec10
There are certain places which transcend time and place and override cultural and religious differences. Kever Rochel is one of those places. It is a place apart from partisan politics and religious sectarianism.
Read more... Time to Say Good Shabbos
12/06/2024 12:09:59 PM
Dec6
As I write these words the Sun has just risen over the hills surrounding Yerushalayim. I have just learned the Parsha and although I have been learning the Parsha for over half a century, a new question arose in my heart.
Read more... Chessed Meets Gevura in the Face of Death
12/04/2024 02:15:05 PM
Dec4
Yesterday, when I made my way down south to see firsthand the destruction wrought by our enemies, there were two reactions which I was privileged to witness time and again.
Read more... The Holy Ones
12/04/2024 02:00:39 PM
Dec4
From the moment i disembarked from the plane, I knew where I had to go. I had to go south and bear witness personally to the single most brutal day in the history of the Jews since the Holocuast.
Read more... Kol HaNearim
11/21/2024 02:56:17 PM
Nov21
As the bidding for Kol HaNearim began, Yechezkel Rosenberg* sat nervously in his seat. His thoughts were centered around one question: ”Would he be able to purchase Kol HaNearim? ” His mind drifted back to a vanished world.
Read more... You Never Know
11/15/2024 12:17:10 PM
Nov15
This is not a story about politics.In fact, the players in this story are just props who appear on stage in a production scripted by the master playwriter Himself. In today's news, I noticed the following few lines about the goings-on in Washington this morning:
Read more... The Art of Listening
11/15/2024 12:13:18 PM
Nov15
Baruch and Miriam looked at each other, each in a state of shock. The Levaya had concluded, and all that remained was the Kel Moleh. Yet, before the Kel Moleh, Mr. Yosef Greenberg* attempted to stand up from his wheelchair. Baruch and Miriam rushed to their elderly father's side. They were unsure what their father's intentions were.
Read more... Yishai Netanel ben Sarah Tova
11/15/2024 12:07:53 PM
Nov15
The situation in Israel seems to get more frightening by the day. Although we believe B'Emunah Sheleima (with complete and total confidence) that Hashem has everything in His plan book, we daven that all should go as quickly and safely for our brothers and sisters in harm's way.
Read more... The Kittel
11/15/2024 11:55:51 AM
Nov15
I spoke to my son Tuvia at his army base just minutes before the fast began. He asked me, Ta, when do I know if I am allowed to eat on Yom Kippur? How do I know if I am required to go on a mission whose length is unknown if I should eat beforehand? I did not know what to answer.
Read more... One on Compassion
11/15/2024 11:12:10 AM
Nov15
With Rosh Hashana Hashanah just days away, and Droshos to prepare and write up, and congregants to meet with, this was the last thing I thought I needed. I do my best to avoid mediating financial disputes.They usually end with all sides disgruntled and having negative feelings towards me, and no one satisfied with my attempts at Solomonic solutions.
Read more... The Flight with Ori
09/19/2024 03:35:02 PM
Sep19
I was flying solo on the 1 AM El Al flight to Newark. I had just completed an overwhelming and exhausting six days in Israel to attend my grandson's Bar Mitzvah. I left the day after Tisha Bav-Wednesday, August 14, and was returning on Wednesday morning, August 21. I was not expecting any conversation as I sat in my aisle seat quietly and wiped out. Yet, as so often happens, Hashem has His plans for us.
Read more... Results
09/18/2024 12:06:13 PM
Sep18
So I decided to go off line for 36 hours, meaning, I am still writing- however, I am not checking my email or phone messages etc. Why did I do this? Very simple.
Read more... False Advertising
09/18/2024 12:02:22 PM
Sep18
I decided to go for a walk the other day and passed a spot which not only sells alcholic beverages, it actively promotes consumption of alcohol as a more effective way of dealing with mental health than conventional therapy.
Read more... Tensely Proud
09/18/2024 11:55:53 AM
Sep18
For most of you today is a regular Sunday- however, for me, this day is anything but regular. You see today for me was a very different type of Sunday. I am sure everyone has their own peckel and, often I spend time listening to other’s worries and fears. Please indulge me as I would like to share with you my own personal peckel.
Read more... Rav Kook ZT"L
09/12/2024 03:10:43 PM
Sep12
Today is the 89th Yahrtzeit of HaRav Avrohom Yiztchok HaKohen Kook ZT”L. Rav Kook needs no introduction to most of us. As the first Chief Rabbi of what was then British Mandatory Palestine in Eretz Yisroel and Rav Kook was one of the Gedolei Yisroel. His literary output is amazing. He wrote in all aspects of Judaism.
Read more... In Memory of Malki Lazar Z"L
09/05/2024 03:36:12 PM
Sep5
It was Wednesday afternoon, Erev July 4. I had a doctor's appointment in Ho-Ho-Kus. I glanced at my ETA and was shocked that my normally thirty-minute drive was now 57 minutes! The AAA projection of 70.9 million travelers heading on the roads for Independence Day was being fulfilled on my screen. However, I realized that perhaps this delay could facilitate a potential Mitzvah.
Read more... The Cuckoo Clock
09/03/2024 02:31:53 PM
Sep3
I observe a daily morning ritual, like clockwork. To be more precise, the ritual is clockwork. Before I leave my house for shul at 6 a.m., I descend the stairs and head straight to the eastern wall of our dining room, where I make a beeline for the object of my avodah, approaching it with a sense of purpose and reverence.
Read more... Tu B'av
08/20/2024 03:06:53 PM
Aug20
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: ”There were no days more joyous than the 15th of Av (Tu B'Av) and Yom Kippur, for on those days the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in borrowed white clothing, in order not to embarrass those who did not have...and the daughters of Jerusalem would dance in the vineyards.” (Mishna Ta’anit 4:8). This year, no one is dancing.
Read more... Erev Tu B'av
08/20/2024 03:02:42 PM
Aug20
In Shul this morning, during Chazaras HaShatz something amazing occurred. As I was listening to the repetition of the Shmoneh Esrei, suddenly I noticed the Kohanim standing in front of the Aron HaKodesh. Was it a Yom Tov today? Why are the Kohanim going to the Duchan?
Read more... In Loving Memory of Elon Weiss ZT"L
08/08/2024 12:46:51 PM
Aug8
'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few' (Winston Churchill- August 20, 1940) Over the phone, I could hear the electronic doors closing on the light rail in Yerushalayim. I asked my son, Meir, ”Where are you going?” ”Har Herzl.” My heart sank as tears welled up in my eyes. I knew Har Herzel was the military cemetery.
Read more... I am not alone ...
07/26/2024 11:07:15 AM
Jul26
The man seemed from another era as he slowly and carefully walked into the office and quietly sat down. The wrinkles running across his face revealed his painful past. Laibel Leibstein* had recently turned 90. He had lived in Boro Park for years, yet sometimes still confused the streets.
Read more... Mah-Jongg!
07/11/2024 11:36:47 AM
Jul11
”Four Crak! Three Bam! Eight Dot!” The words roll off the tongues of the four women, intensity focused on the small rectangular tiles before them. The tension builds as the women, all concentrating on the strange-looking tiles before them, as if they are on a life-saving mission, are vying to be able to scream out the coveted utterance only known to the select initiated group of Jewish women world over.
Read more... Tue, July 29 2025
4 Av 5785
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Tue, July 29 2025 4 Av 5785