In light of everything going on in the world, I’ve been thinking a lot about the jarring dissonance and incompatibility of a cruel world and a loving G-d. The topic is mind-boggling because it defies understanding. On the one hand, part of existence is incomprehensibly hellish and heartless. Yet, on the other hand, life is …
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I wanted to personally work on this upcoming year; I have plenty of personal work but nothing really moved me. But I ended up stumbling upon some family videos, some dating 10-20 years ago. I thought it would have been nice to watch a time that is bygone. …
Who is man? Is he the one who flew an airplane into the Twin Towers? Or is he the one who gave up his life trying to save people? I don’t think this is a mere philosophical musing. How we understand the nature of man affects if we hope or despair about our fate. And …
Last night for the first time in my life I went to a wedding of an older couple probably somewhere in their 50s and it was freaking awesome. It was soooooo different than a typical wedding of a younger couple. First, I feel like for young people to get married they have to get bamboozled. …
Any man who is married knows that a woman does more than just provide companionship. She fundamentally bestows a sense of sanity for the man. Men, by nature, are instinctual, tribalistic, ego-driven, competitive to a fault, aggressive – all of which lead to less than stellar judgment and can push a man to an unhealthy …
Growing up in a Middle Eastern culture, I was exposed to unhealthy views of women. And then growing up in Western culture, which although it bewilderingly professes women’s rights, I was exposed in some ways to even worse views of women. When I became an Orthodox Jew, I was introduced to a whole different way …
It can be a bizarre thing to commemorate Tisha B’av because Jews were exiled from Israel, at a time when Jews are freely living in Israel. It begs the question, why do we need Tisha B’av? The question demonstrates the true tragedy of the exile was not geographic but spiritual. On Tisha B’av, above and …
It is possible that if there is one day that is the most misunderstood in Judaism, it is Yom Kippur. We fast and abstain from the physical not as a philosophy, but as an exercise to help the soul fly. Judaism engages the physical most of the year, but one day we abjure from the …
The pinnacle of wisdom, the highest form of knowledge man can attain, is not the understanding of the heavens or the insight into the mechanics of the earth; not knowledge of the spiritual systems or the scientific world. But rather, man arrives at the pinnacle of wisdom when his is heart full with love for …
Just because you do not feel pain anymore does not mean you are not hurt anymore. That is, out of sight might mean out mind but out of mind does not mean out of heart. The pain you experience never leaves your heart. No experience does. Time does not heal pain, it numbs it. With …