Sparks
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The Secret to Immortality
When G-d said to Abraham ...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny
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Pure exhaustion; that was the only way to describe it; She sank down in the back seat of the yellow cab and let her eyes close. She did not know exactly where she was going, but trusted the cab driver to get her there, as she nodded off to sleep. The driver was talking, as New York cab drivers are wont to do, but the woman...
Sparks
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From His-tory to Her-story
Is G-d male or female?
One day my son Ananiel and my two daughters, Leyadya and Ne'ema, burst into my study. They had obviously been fighting over something and were very upset. I could see that I was chosen to be the lucky arbitrator to resolve another case of sibling rivalry. They shouted at each other, "You go, you ask Daddy." "No, no! You go, you go." Finally Ananiel, who was age five at that time, took the challenge and said, "O.K., O.K. Daddy, isn't it true that G-d is a boy?" Ne'ema and Leyadya, ages eight and nine, had tears in their eyes. I could hear them silently pleading with me, "Please no, please no. Tell us it's not true. It's bad enough our brother is a boy. Surely, G-d is really a girl." I said to them, "G-d is not a boy and G-d is not a girl. G-d is beyond that....
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny
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They were a small group of men with a mission. The year was 1940, and Jews by the tens of thousands were being herded into the ghettos of Nazi-occupied Europe, And while the Nazi hierarchy was meeting to determine the 'final solution to the Jewish problem', this small group was preparing the groundwork for what they believed would be the influx of refugees who would need a home and a place to call their own.
It is hard to imagine the vision required for a group of Jews in 1940 to believe that there was a need to create new towns and villages in the barren lands that were years away from becoming the State of Israel, but these young men and women believed, against all odds, that they were on the threshold of the fulfillment of a two thousand year old dream, and that at long last, after so many years of wandering, the Jewish...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny
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Sometimes, the meaning of life is all about getting the right perspective. Take the story of the sixth ladder company firefighters on duty on the morning of September 11th.
Minutes after the first plane hit the towers, they were rushing into 1 World Trade Center to try and reach the survivors on the floors above. On the twenty-seventh floor, they heard and felt the other tower collapse, and the captain, Bill Jonas, decided they needed to get back down. Clearly, they needed to get out; if one tower could collapse, then so could the other.
Somewhere around the 14th floor, they met a middle-aged woman named Josephine Harris. She had walked down from the 73rd floor and was totally exhausted.
Bill Butler, another of the firemen, folded her arm around his neck and kept moving.
...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny
(Click here for print version)
Three thousand years ago, King Solomon wrote in the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) that there is a time and a season for everything under the sun. ...
Maasei – Wandering with Direction (Reality Therapy)
Each of the forty-two stops in the desert offers the Jewish people a unique opportunity to develop as they prepare to enter into the Promised Land. Rabbi Aaron also addresses the issues concerning conquering, settling, and living in the Land of Israel.
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Matot 2 – Moshe and The Land of Israel
Two events are the major focus here. One: Moses, whose consciousness has been absorbed completely in the nation, is ready to leave this world after the war with Midian. Two: The tribes of Reuven and Gad request to settle on the east side of the Jordan River, which brings up a major question about the nature of the Promised Land.
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