Monthly Archives: April 2013

After describing the Yetzer HaRa in terms more understandable in our times, we’re still left to deal with it.  How can we overcome emotional obsessions and intellectual conceits?  It’s telling that Jewish tradition has no analogue for Christianity’s Lord’s Prayer’s … Continue reading →

I remember my grandparents and others their generation talking about the “yaytzerhora” as some sort of demon (or maybe a variation of Israeli folk-dancing?)–I didn’t yet know what those words (in fact, it was a few years until I learned … Continue reading →

There’s an unresolved “argument” whether it’s better to enter Tefilla, prayer, focusing on God’s grandeur or on our own humble status.  Since one realization necessarily leads to the other, for most of us it doesn’t really matter.  There’s also a … Continue reading →

(פִּיהָ פָּתְחָה בְחָכְמָה וְתוֹרַת־חֶסֶד עַל־לְשׁוֹנָהּ (משלי לא:כו She opens her mouth with wisdom, the Torah of Chesed is her language (Proverbs 31:26) *     *     *     *     *     * A recent … Continue reading →

Many years ago I purchased a set of cassette tapes (still available) which contain a talk by Rabbi Shloime Twerski zt”l where he addresses labels and badges within the Jewish world.  Speaking in the 1970s, still toward the beginning of … Continue reading →

(הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר……… וְאַל תַּאֲמֵן בְּעַצְמָךְ עַד יוֹם מוֹתָךְ (אבות ב:ד Hillel says …….. “Don’t believe in yourself (to be perfect) until the day you die (Avot 2:4) Our tradition presents a dynamic tension between inspiration and following “the rules”, between … Continue reading →

Hebrew is unique among languages in that, at least in its classical/religious roots, it is deliberate and “engineered”, meant to convey spiritual, in addition to mere semantic, meaning.  There is a tradition to analyze the numerical values of letters, words … Continue reading →

I have to admit that my focus as well as my general inclination is more towards Torah learning and teaching than towards davening.  To be really honest, most of the time it’s very difficult for me to develop much more … Continue reading →