Monthly Archives: June 2013

I’ve always wondered about the catalog of sins, some I’ve committed, some I’m pretty sure I haven’t, that I recite on Yom Kippur as well as the smaller version                      ….אָשַׁמְנוּ, … Continue reading →

(There is an irony/synchronicity of the previous article posting just before the Shabbat we read Parshat Balak, as well as the Mussar Workshop itself occurring that day.) Not only are this Torah portions’s first words (BaMidbar 22:2), וַיַּרְא בָּלָק, VaYa’r Balak, And Balak … Continue reading →

(This is another of the series of Mussar workshops I assist with.) וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֹת ה’ וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם וְלֹא תָתוּרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּם זֹנִים אַחֲרֵיהֶם (במדבר  טו:לט) And you shall look at them (tzitzit) and recall all … Continue reading →

There are infinite facets to Torah and we have complex relationships with it.  Ideally, we’re supposed to use Torah in order to better and refine the world, both Olam Gadol, the macrocosm of the universe and Olam Katan, the microcosm, … Continue reading →

The previous article, discussing the absurd, yet effective inversion of history by Dotan and Abiram, raises the contemporary issue of narratives and how to evaluate them. Our tradition, actually, provides a set of straightforward techniques to verify/generate statements that, to … Continue reading →

While it makes sense that, as finite beings, we can’t fully observe or understand the infinite levels, effects and implications of mitzvot, each of which are elements of the Infinite Torah, garments, as it were, of the Infinite God, we can be aware … Continue reading →