Difficult Days
10/11/2023 05:31:51 PM
Oct11
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..
Read more... The Masked Man
09/26/2023 12:39:39 PM
Sep26
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.
Read more... The Most Powerful Words
09/14/2023 12:29:15 PM
Sep14
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.
Read more... Yisroel ben Esther, Hodu L'Hashem!
09/06/2023 11:49:08 AM
Sep6
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.
Read more... Yisroel ben Esther
09/06/2023 11:43:35 AM
Sep6
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.
Read more... The Escape Artist
08/25/2023 10:51:44 AM
Aug25
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.
Read more... How to Avoid Decades of Resentment
08/11/2023 10:57:20 AM
Aug11
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.
Read more... HaShem is Truly Everywhere
08/09/2023 10:28:08 AM
Aug9
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.
Read more... The Jewish State
08/08/2023 12:02:06 PM
Aug8
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.
Read more... Tefillah
08/08/2023 10:00:38 AM
Aug8
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.
Read more... The Kosel
08/08/2023 09:52:14 AM
Aug8
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.
Read more... Sunrise at the Kosel
08/03/2023 10:25:20 AM
Aug3
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.
Read more... Tu B'Av and the Churva Shul
08/02/2023 10:21:23 AM
Aug2
“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.
Read more... Giveret Mizrachi
08/02/2023 10:05:56 AM
Aug2
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
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?”
Read more... The Nine Days
07/20/2023 02:05:54 PM
Jul20
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.
Read more... The Letter and The Lesson
07/13/2023 11:25:58 AM
Jul13
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.
Read more... Smash the Sparrow Campaign
" >07/12/2023 03:20:08 PM
Jul12
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.
Read more... Reflections of the Fourth
" >07/05/2023 02:22:22 PM
Jul5
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.
Read more... Final Payment
07/03/2023 02:35:21 PM
Jul3
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.
Read more... The Heroine
06/23/2023 10:27:44 AM
Jun23
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.
Read more... Age is Only a Number
06/07/2023 01:45:14 PM
Jun7
When Syliva Rubin* arrived at the assisted living complex, her sole emotion was loneliness. At 61, Syliva had made the cut to be granted the privilege of being part of the facility; however, the last thing she felt was privileged. She was consumed with a sense of misery and melancholy.
Read more... You Have a Nice Beard
06/01/2023 11:43:03 AM
Jun1
Yesterday, I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when surprisingly, a woman - who had to be in her sixties- says to me, ”What a nice beard you have. ” I was taken a back.
Read more... Cell Phones
05/30/2023 02:45:39 PM
May30
Now that the weather has taken a turn for the warm and pleasant it was my turn to go out and take a walk and enjoy the fresh air and warmth. As I was walking near the park on Tennyson, I noticed a familiar face.
Read more... Rus
05/30/2023 02:33:35 PM
May30
Rus is one of my favorite heroines in the Tanach. She is the one who lives and breathes the famous quote from President Harry Truman. ”It's amazing what you can accomplish when you do not care who gets the credit, ”
Read more... Hashem Loves Me
05/19/2023 12:19:53 PM
May19
It was Seder night. The youngest in the family, Chizkiyahu, had just opened the door at ”Shepoch Chamasecha” and the fourth cup was poured.Everyone was satiated from their mother's delicious meal, and now it was time to sit back and sing Hallel to Hashem.
Read more... Happy Mother's Day
05/16/2023 02:21:47 PM
May16
This past Sunday was Mother's Day. I was planning to write this Vort on Sunday; however, as they say, ”Mann tracht un G-tt lacht”. (In English, ”Man plans and G-d laughs”)
Read more... Esther Jaffe A"H
05/04/2023 02:23:33 PM
May4
At 3:20 PM on Friday, March 3, I suddenly saw them.The large contingent of Hatzalah vehicles amassing in front of my next-door neighbor's home was alarming.
Read more... Rav Bender's Realignment
04/20/2023 01:52:29 PM
Apr20
The excitement in the room was palpable.It was an event marking the beginning of the learning of Mishnayos for the third-grade boys at Yeshiva Darchei Torah.Parents and grandparents were all in attendance celebrating their son’s or grandson’s first immersion into Torah Shebe’al Peh.
Read more... Sasha Mindel bas Rav Chaim Yehuda
04/19/2023 11:44:15 AM
Apr19
This Shabbos, Parshas Shimini 2023, was the Yahrtzeit of a woman who passed away 169 years ago.On the 24th of Nissan in the year 1854, on Parshas Shimini, Sasha Mindel Hertzberg, née Kluger, passed away.
Read more... Fri, April 19 2024
11 Nisan 5784
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Fri, April 19 2024 11 Nisan 5784