Vayishlach – Much Vs. All
One might not expect the key to happiness to be hidden in the meeting of Yaakov and Esav recounted in the parsha. But it’s there. When Yaakov explains the lavish gifts he had sent...
Rav Chaim Shmulevitz’s Powerful Wartime Questions
by Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weisz Rav Chaim Shmulevitz zt”l asked powerful questions during the Yom Kippur War: Why don’t we see awakening in prayer and learning despite the crisis of war? He concludes it...
Nosei B’ol Im Chaveiro
by Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky The coverage of the horrors of the Simchas Torah carnage in Mishpacha magazine generated many letters to the editor. Some complained that showing the images (and they were quite benign...
A Message That Should Not Be Missed
Dear Friends, We have each other and we must treasure each other. For the nation that dwells alone and has had good reason to feel alone, Monday and Tuesday were days of incredible strength...
Notes From the War – November 17, 2023
May I still use the word “exhilarated,” or has a certain Cornell professor banished it from the use of decent people? Assuming it is allowed, it describes the way everyone I spoke to felt...
Chayei Sara – Death and Marriage
That a man’s gifting of something of worth to a woman can effect a marriage if both parties agree is derived through exegesis from, of all places, Avraham’s purchase of a burial site for...
Messages From the War – Nov. 6
So many of the events that punctuate our days here in Yerushalayim end the same way. Case in point. My son went to a levaya of a soldier on Har Herzl. As he walked...
Vayeira – More Intimate Than Prophecy
Avraham experiences a communication from Hashem at the start of the parsha (Beraishis 18:1, 18:13). And it culminates with Hashem’s informing our forebear of the impending destruction of S’dom (18:20-21). Then, the Torah tells...
Messages From the War – Oct 22
Anyone who is not here is missing out on an experience of Biblical proportions. You keep seeing more evidence of it, and you are all probably contributing towards it as well. This is a...
Noach — Symbols Gone Astray
It’s intriguing that two separate images from parshas Noach have been turned by contemporary society into widely used symbols – and each one is decidedly off the mark. A dove holding an olive branch...