Monthly Archives: April 2016

Rabbi Shloime Twerski zt”l didn’t allow the practice, common in most shuls, for someone to walk the tzedakah pushka around the room to make it convenient for everyone to fulfill the mitzvah of daily charitable giving. He explained that this … Continue reading →

Shir HaShirim, usually read by Ashkenazim on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach (1) and by Sephardim before every Shabbat, presents on the surface as a secular love poem. In fact, it was the last (or among the last) scroll to be accepted … Continue reading →

Until just a few days ago, I had waited for years to be asked at Seder why we begin by breaking the middle matzah, יחץ (Yachatz). The simple answer is that we cannot begin to become whole until we first … Continue reading →

Of course, there are likely to be at least a couple skeptics at most seder tables. The story of the Exodus, with it’s other-worldly plagues, set in the midst of detailed and convoluted rabbinic explanations of a few Biblical passages, doesn’t mean … Continue reading →

Three times a day we recite the the eighth blessing in the Amida praying that all Yisrael be healed. The language is very specific–it says “Rofay kol amo Yisrael” (…all of His nation…) rather than, for example, “Rofay cholay amo … Continue reading →

We don’t consider the material world to be perfectible because we aim higher. Bringing the “world”, primarily this word refers to each individual Jew (Olam Katan, a small universe) maximally refining himself, primarily through Torah and Mitzvot (which, admittedly, are … Continue reading →