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What Do We Know?
Humble Words to Console
When we try to understand G-d, we face an inherent obstacle with the very process of knowing. When I attempt to know anything, I am the subject and the thing that I seek to know is the object. In addition, there must be some degree of distance and separation between the subject and the object. Your eye can see almost everything, but it cannot see itself. ...
When Rav Yitzchak Hutner (Author of the Pachad Yitzchak ) was learning in Slobodka Yeshiva in the early 1900’s, one of the students went from Slobodka to Berlin to be with Rav Dovid Tzvi Hoffman. When he returned to Slobodka the Alter of Slobodka (the head of the Slobodka yeshiva) asked for his impressions of the German people.
Among other things, the student shared that the Germans were a kind people. They had a polite way of speaking. As an example, when giving directions, a German, after sharing the instructions, would politely ask "nicht wahr?" (Is this not so?) This showed refinement. He would not say anything definitive; he would always end the sentence with a tentative, 'nicht wahr?'
At that point a debate broke out between the students of the Yeshiva. Was it right to praise the Germans? Some suggested true and lasting ethics should be culled from our own sources. But there was one student who persisted and suggested that...
Tisha B'Av: Does G-d Cry?
On Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av (which this year begins at nightfall July 25), Jews mourn over the loss of the Holy Temple, Beis HaMikdash in Hebrew, that stood in Jerusalem. On this day, the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple in 586 B.C.E., and the Romans demolished the Second Temple in 70 C.E..
Each Tisha B'Av, we have a custom to read Eicha, or the Book of Lamentations, a painful account of the prophet Jeremiah's intense sorrow over the destruction of the First Temple. In addition to reading the Eicha, we abstain from any physical pleasures the entire day. We are not allowed to eat, drink, wash our bodies for enjoyment or wear leather shoes. A little less-known Halacha, or Jewish law, is that we are not allowed to say hello to each other.
This law is perhaps the most difficult for me and yet the most meaningful. In Jerusalem in the...
We Are Never Alone
Walking and Talking with the Divine
And in the wilderness where you have seen how that the LORD your G-d carried you as a man does bear his son in all the way that you went until you came into this place ----- Deuteronomy 1:31
Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you, G-d, are with me. ----Psalms 23
Really!!-- The Zohar Vol. 2 pg. 57
In the world at large, if your boss sends you on a mission, he generally stays at the office, while you go off to accomplish the assigned task. But that's not the case when G-d sends you on a mission. G-d comes along.
This is the meaning of the verse in Psalm 127: “If G-d doesn't build your house, your labor is for nothing.”
Now you might think that if G-d is going to build your house, why do you have to labor at all? The...
How did it come to this?
How could it be that a Former Israeli Chief Rabbi has been indicted for taking millions in bribes, and faces trial for numerous counts of bribery fraud and money laundering?
I am not commenting on the case itself, nor am I offering any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the former Chief Rabbi, as my information comes only from the media which is not a court of law. But if a Chief Rabbi can be put on trial for bribery and fraud, something is obviously dreadfully wrong. If a Chief Rabbi can become corrupted, how can we avoid the same pitfalls? Is there a recipe for remaining true to one’s ethical principles?
This Shabbat we begin reading the fifth and final book of the Five Books of Moses, Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy). In this book Moshe gives his farewell soliloquy to the Jewish people as the first verse suggests:
“These are the words that Moshe spoke to...
Making G-d's Will Ours
"Behold you have sinned against G-d. And you your sin will find you." ~~ Numbers 32:23
THE PROCESS OF 'I'-DENTIFYING
If G-d were the sun each of us would be a ray of His divine light. The goal of the spiritual disciplines of daily Torah (Bible) life - study, prayer, meditation, and the performance of mitzvas (religious duties; plural formitzvah), is to serve G-d and, thereby, become one with our true essence. Through these practices we experience our self an aspect and individualized expression of the Timeless Universal Self - G-d.
The 20th century Kabbalist Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan explains in his book Inner Space that in order to feel this powerful truth, we must learn to disengage our inner self from its outer trappings. In other words, we have to get in touch with our soul as distinct from our persona, thoughts and feelings.
The goal of disengaging the self from the outer trappings is to realize that you are not your thoughts, your emotions, your body, your money,...
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What makes leaders willing to sacrifice everything?
This week marked nine years since my cousin Benjy Hillman fell in battle leading his men into combat in the second Lebanon War in 2006. One would think by now, the tears would no longer flow so easily and the memorial ceremony at his grave would be less gut-wrenching. But watching his mother Judith...
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Can You Forgive G-d?
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. ~~ Anne Frank
This imperfect world is the perfect place for a dynamic life filled with challenge, growth and love. That...
