Category: Chumash Shemot

(print version) There are many different ways to be inspired ,and fill your soul; Most people are blessed on occasion with such an experience through events of great magnitude and significance: listening to the words and thoughts of a true Torah scholar or great mind, or standing in prayer with fifty thousand Jews at the Kotel (the Western Wall) celebrating the festival of the giving of the Torah (Shavuot), or even experiencing the moment of silence in Israel on the morning of Memorial day, as an entire country just stops to honor its fallen heroes. But sometimes inspiration comes in the simplest of moments, like a good cup of coffee. Now don...

(print version) The Divine Wants You to be Happy When Rules Become Delicious Recipes for Your Soul ...

(print version) At the end of World War Two, the United States Army liberated the Concentration camp of Buchenwald, and began the painstaking process of administering to the survivors. Rabbi Herschel Schechter, who was the chaplain of the US eighth army, stayed in the camp and attempted, as much as was possible, to create a semblance of Jewish experience for those who had survived. How does one run a prayer service, and encourage people to pray to a G-d who seemed to have been so absent in those terrible years? Rabbi Schechter requisitioned one of the barracks and set it up as a makeshift synagogue, and began running services for those who were interested. One day, noticing one of the survivors standing on the side watching the prayers, Rabbi Schechter invited him to join the service, but the man refused. Nonetheless, he remained in the barracks, watching the service with the vacant eyes that were common in the camps in those...

(print version) Is G-d Just a Cosmic Party Pooper? How to Find Our Mission in Life I recall a cute comic strip depicting Moses coming down from Mt.Sinai with the Ten Commandments written in stone. ...

(print version) Silence; so thick you could cut it with a knife. A silence of such magnitude and such power, I was sure that even the angels in heaven were standing still, in silent awe. I remember it like it was yesterday. The day after Shavuot, the festival commemorating that moment, three thousand years ago, when an entire people stood in silent awe at the foot of Sinai, when, on a road in Gush Etzion, time stopped. An innocent drive home, on a beautiful road in the mountains of Judea, suddenly cut short by the horrible sounds of gunfire. And Sarah Blaustein, of blessed memory, mother, wife, and beloved neighbor, whose life was cut short so suddenly, would never have the chance to listen to the sweet sounds of her children again. That night, ten thousand people came to the cemetery in Gush Etzion to bid her farewell. Ten thousand people make a lot of noise, but cemeteries have a way of making...

(print version) The Miraculous Power of Love The first of the Ten Commandments is: ...

(print version) Wake up an Israeli tank commander in the middle of the night and flash a picture of a BMP-1 APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) at a distance of 5 kilometers, when it appears to be little more than a speck in the distance, and he will instantly recognize it as a Soviet- made troop carrier that fires armor-piercing Sagger anti-tank missiles. He will also be able to rattle off to you their effective range, and threat capacity (the amount of time it takes to aim and fire, as well as which Israeli tanks will effectively pierce). He will also know instantly that this carrier is most likely to be seen in the Syrian theater of war. The Israeli army takes the topic of enemy weaponry very seriously, and has a variety of often-sadistic methods for ensuring that its commanders become extremely proficient in this particular expertise. I remember vividly the oft-repeated ritual of testing on this topic that took place every...

(print version) Where is G-d, the Miracle Maker? People often say, ...

(print version) Are we here because we have made the right choices, or have all the right choices really been made for us? It was meant to be a routine patrol which, but for this incident, would long have been forgotten. We were on reserve duty during the Intifada (the original Intifada, back in 89...

(print version) Identity Crisis is a Gift: Awakening to the Role and Goal of Your Soul Kirk Douglas, the actor, once told me that when people compliment him on a performance, they often tell him how great he was at losing himself in the part. "You just became Vincent Van Gogh! You were so wonderful." And he answers, "No, you lost yourself in the part. I can't afford to lose myself in the part. I have to pay attention to the director, to the cues. I have to hit the mark just right so the action is in the camera frame. I must stay aware that I am an actor playing a role." A good actor plays his part, but he doesn't get lost in his part. He can't even begin to think he is the character he is playing. On the other hand, he still embraces that role with a tremendous amount of love and gives everything he's got to play...