Simchat Torah will be celebrated by Jews around the world this upcoming week. On that day, we complete and begin anew the annual Torah reading cycle. This joyous milestone is celebrated primarily by singing and dancing while the Torah is kept aloft. Much has been written about the power and nature of singing. Much less …
The other day I had the good fortune to strike up a conversation with an Israeli man. He was as secular as they come. He lived most of his adult life in Japan and then in a small city in Mexico. He kept close to nothing religiously. He was disconnected, uninterested, and removed from his …
Shabbat is a time of peace and transcendence. It’s a time when the profanity of the week evaporates and palpable holiness envelopes the day. One who is sensitive can sense that time is fundamentally different on Shabbat. It might operate according to the same speed as the weekday, but it has an entirely different character. …
Depression is really the combination of stagnation and despair. You’re in a place of pain and it seems your situation is inescapable. And because the demon of depression is more of an existential angst as opposed to a purely mental stress, I think its prescription is slightly different than anxiety. Anxiety is a feeling of …
Early on in my life, I was compelled to develop the ability to take criticism semi-graciously. Why? Because growing up I was always surrounded by a lot of women, and there is something about the nature of a woman which creates this insatiable desire to fix a man. It’s actually remarkable, men don’t really care …
Generally, we look at the Torah as a commentary to life. But what is just as true, but not as widely recognized, that our life serves as commentary to the Torah. We can read the Torah many times over, understand the words but be at loss at its meaning. The Torah can be saying only …
I went today to Rav Chaim’s funeral. I was amongst over 750,000 people there. My left leg has been hurting me but I was determined to go. I walked miles to get to the funeral. At a certain point, I began limping, and after I just couldn’t walk anymore, I sat down on some steps …
On the Passing of Rav Chaim & The Evolutionary Process Read More »
Passover is the formation and creation of the Jewish people. In effect, we celebrate our birth as a nation. I had a very interesting encounter recently that gave a whole new meaning to my Passover. I was dead asleep on an intercontinental flight and my stewardess woke me up. Why? She wanted to inform me …
I have a love for the drama of ideas; and nothing moves me, transforms me, and defines me like the study of wisdom. Rav Noach said that what pleasure is to the body is what wisdom is to the soul. I read anything and everything, especially, literature that reflects truth, conveys depth, and has the …
”It was meant to be” or “there is a reason for everything” are not expressions that are suppose to make you passive. On the contrary, they make you introspective and active, and let you know that no matter how much the hurt, no matter how great the loss, your pain is not in vain. That …