Category: Isralight Blog

When Steve Jobs was seventeen he saw a quote: "If you live each day as though it were your last, some day you will most certainly be right.” In 2005, at a Stanford University commencement address he recounted that after seeing that quote, every day in the morning he would look in the mirror  and ask  himself: "If today were the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer had been no for too many days in a row, he knew something needed to change.  Remembering we will be dead soon, continued Jobs, is the greatest tool he ever encountered for helping to make the big choices in life, because almost everything (fear of failure, external expectations, pride...) falls away in the face of death.  A year earlier he had been diagnosed with cancer; at 7:30 in the morning they showed him a tumor on his pancreas and told him it was most...

Making Every Day Count The Key to Making Life Worth Living One day as I was waiting for a friend, an old woman sits down next to me. Suddenly she jumps out of her seat, turns to me and yells, "I should have never left Mexico!" I look at her and ask, "When did you leave Mexico?" "Thirty years ago!" she cries. "And I regret it every single day of my life!" You would think that after 30 years a person would finally get used to where they were. But people often live in the past. One of my students, age 28, told me that his father insulted him when he was age 12 and till this day he continues to feel hurt and angry. I explained to him that although his father hurt him when he was twelve he has allowed his father to continue to hurt him for another sixteen years by holding on to the pain and constantly remembering it. I suggested...

This week’s Torah byte is dedicated to the memory of my Auntie Helene (Stalbow; nee’ Schiff) a”h Chaya Gittel bat Shimon Alter Yitzchak and Frumeh Toibeh, who passed away in Ra’anana, Israel. Auntie Helene was 93 years old. She spent the last twenty years of her life living here in Israel (in Ra’anana) surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She had an incredible marriage to our uncle Geoffrey who passed away some years ago, raised a deeply Zionistic family, and lived to see her dreams come true. This week’s Torah Byte is dedicated to her memory; she truly exemplified the ideas we discuss this week in every way. She was a true lady, and we will miss her.   Many years ago I had the privilege of sharing the land of Israel with a birthright group for ten days. One afternoon we took them to Emek Habacha, the valley of tears. And I shared with them one of the most powerful...

Enjoying Heaven on Earth In this week's Torah portion G-d appeared to Abraham and yet He said nothing. "G-d appeared to [Abraham] in the Plains of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the hottest part of the day. [Abraham] lifted his eyes and he saw three strangers approaching and ran towards them." Until now G-d appeared to Abraham to instruct, promise or bless him. The Talmud (Sotah 14A) comments that G-d was visiting sick Abraham who was recuperating from his circumcision. What does this mean? When you visit a person who is ill it is not in order to say something; your mere presence communicates your pure desire to identify with this person in his/her time of need. You go for the sole purpose of being there. So it was when G-d visited Abraham. For the first time G-d appears to Abraham only to be with him, identify with him and share this special moment. Sometimes the highest moment...

She was sitting not more than twenty feet away, but I never met her. She was fifteen, and full of life; I must have seen her, but was not paying attention; I was busy with other things. It had been a very challenging year, with almost eighty days of extremely difficult reserve duty, par for the course of being a Company Commander in the reserves at the height of the second Intifada. So I was feeling particularly blessed that afternoon that I was healthy, and safe with a loving family and much to look forward to.   For me it seemed, life was so full of chesed, Hashem’s loving-kindness. But as I was standing on line waiting for my baked ziti, a man with a guitar case full of explosives was walking towards the same S’barro’s Pizzeria; everything was about to change, forever. I imagine she was probably doing what any healthy fifteen year old girl would be doing on a beautiful summer...

The Secret to Immortality When G-d said to Abraham “Go to yourself-- Lech Lecha” what was He actually asking Abraham to do? This command seems to be contradicted by the remainder of the statement: “...from your country, from your birthplace and from your father’s home.” Are these not the fundamental elements that make up a person’s sense of self? My nation, my birthplace and family together create the context for my identity and establish the vital ground for my sense of self. In addition, they represent citizenship, property rights, and inheritance, all essential sources of personal security. What G-d is actually saying to Abraham is, “Go to yourself and leave yourself,” bidding him to seek himself and at the same time abandon everything that establishes and confirms selfhood. The very order of the statement verifies this, as it is not in chronological order. A person first leaves his father’s home, then his birthplace and then finally the country’s borders, not the...

When is it time to part ways? These past weeks Israel seems to be in the grip of a wave of terror: stabbings, shootings, firebombs, and riots, leaving us wondering whether there is anything left of the ‘peace process’; seems more like pieces…. People often say, you don’t make peace with your friends, you make peace with enemies and you have to be willing to sit and dialogue with even your most bitter enemy. True, but you have to start with an enemy who wants to make peace, and for that matter, which is willing to talk.  So maybe it’s time to let go; maybe there is no peace partner and we need to part ways, build fences, and leave attempts at any rapprochement for another day. And yet, are we really at the point where we must walk away from any hope of peace with our Arab cousins, many of whom I am sure want peace as much as we do? How do you...

Are You Ready for the Ultimate Pleasure? The generations following the sin of Adam and Eve proceeded upon a path of moral degeneration. Cain, in a jealous rage, impulsively killed his brother Abel. In the next generation, Tuvel- Kain perfected the crime of Cain through manufacturing weapons. Then, Lemach boasted to his wives of committing pre-meditative murder. Idolatry flourished during the time of Enosh. Organized crime was established by a group of hoodlums called “The sons of Elohim.” Sexual perversion was rampant in Noah’s generation. Torah tradition teaches that there are three cardinal sins that a person should choose death rather than be forced to commit. They are: murder, idolatry, and sexual perversion. These offenses are the ultimate denial of G-d’s love and the values that make life worth living. They are a complete violation of living within the context of G- d’s oneness and love and therefore cut humanity off from the source and ground of life. In a span...

What went wrong? Thirteen years old; Bar Mitzvah age; boys with their entire lives ahead of them. One must have recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. He was riding his bicycle on a beautiful Monday afternoon, because, that’s what thirteen year olds do. Life is not so complicated…. On Monday afternoon this Jewish Bar Mitzvah boy riding his bike met another thirteen year old having fun, which should be part of a normal day for a thirteen year old; Two boys getting together to have some fun on a Monday afternoon. Only the second boy, a thirteen year old Arab from East Jerusalem wasn’t riding a bike, he was carrying a knife. And he used it, along with his fifteen year old cousin to repeatedly stab the Jewish Bar Mitzvah boy on his bicycle. The Jewish boy, who remains in critical condition, is fighting for his life as of this writing. What is going on? How are thirteen year old boys becoming murders?  Yet...

Created in the image of love The power to be who you are In the very opening sentences of the Torah (Bible) we are told that the first human being was created in G-d's own image. And what was that image? The first human being was actually a man and a woman — a single entity that included the two sexes. "And G-d created man in His own image, in the image of G-d created He him; male and female created He them" (Genesis 1:27). In this union of male and female, in this oneness of opposites, the first human being reflected the image of G-d — a oneness that includes otherness and yet remains one. This is a very important concept. A lone individual does not reflect the image of G-d; an individual in unity with another individual does. So until an individual makes a space to include another, and allows that other to do the same, we do not have the...