Category Archives: Uncategorized

It goes without saying, M’lo Kol Ha’Aretz Kvodo, that The Creator fills the entire universe with His Presence. However, our ability as humans to experience that phenomenon is not uniformly distributed. As Jews, our ability will run much better in … Continue reading →

Increasingly, over the last twenty-five years (yes, Oslo), the Jewish Communities in Israel and those in the United States seem to have less and less in common. Burning questions in Israel concern the necessary and in-progress transformation of Halacha, and … Continue reading →

1) Avot 2:4 tells us to make God’s Will into our will, in other words,to subjugate our person agenda to God’s so that he will come to make our will His Will. Politics, entertainment, sports and celebrities are now on … Continue reading →

The primary Mitzvah  of Sukkot is, simply, to live inside a Sukkah for a week to eat all our meals there, to even sleep there, weather permitting, to entertain guest there and, of course, to study Torah and also, perhaps, … Continue reading →

Z’man Simchateynu is upon us. Yes, it’s almost Sukkot, The Time of our Joy, and we are commanded, V’Semachta b’Chagecha V’Hayita Af Sameach! Rejoice in your festival and be especially happy. I don’t know about you, but when “commanded” to … Continue reading →

First, thank you for reading my thoughts for yet another year. I hope you’ll continue and that your responses will continue to inspire me. I often find myself at the very edge of Shabbat and Holiday deadlines, and my proof-reading … Continue reading →

In many ways, Yom Kippur is the easiest of all the Jewish. No special meal to prepare, nothing to build, no difficult Megilah  to chant. Of course, in past years I would spend more than a month relearning and, hopefully, … Continue reading →

As the calendar begins to approach a new decade–in just one year it will be 5780, as the reality of a soon-to-be majority of the world’s Jews living in Eretz Yisrael under Jewish sovereignty for the first time in almost … Continue reading →

What to do? What to do? This year in Jerusalem, as Tisha B’Av, our millennia-old national day of mourning and fasting, we are drowning in a plethora of choices of how to participate. Counter-intuitive, perhaps, certainly counter-tradition, there are any … Continue reading →

There’s a concept in civil law called Relief. The idea is that when someone suffers damages they should be compensated, as best as can, at least partly, for their losses. Ideally, the one who caused or profited by the damages … Continue reading →