Blog

It is hard to imagine, looking down at the dry, windswept desert floor far below, what it must have been like two thousand years ago, to be a Jewish rebel soldier atop the isolated fortress of Masada. What kept you going, as you gazed down at the might of three full Roman Legions, all bent on your destruction? In the year 70 CE, with the Temple (the Beit HaMikdash) in flames, Jerusalem breached and destroyed, hundreds of thousands of Jews dead, and hundreds of thousands more sold into slavery, the Romans announced that the great revolt had finally been put down. They even minted a coin to communicate their victory to the entire Roman Empire. The coin, known as ‘Judea Capta’, shows a woman, meant to be the Jewish people, cowering at the feet of a Roman legionnaire. The Jewish people had been defeated, and the war was finally over. The only problem was, the Romans were wrong. Two hundred Jewish rebel...

To Serve with Joy Is your life ‘out of service’? “And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh; and he said unto them: 'Go, serve the LORD your G-d; but who are they that shall go?' And Moses said: 'We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we will go; because the holiday of G-d is for us.'” — Exodus 10:8-9 The King of Egypt must have been quite surprised by Moses answer. To serve G-d is not like serving you. It is not about degrading back-breaking slavery rather a joyful celebration for the whole family. To serve G-d is a holiday for us. The Secret to Service Most people think that a mitzvah is a "demand" meant to deprive or diminish our godly self worth. But that is incorrect. A mitzvah is a "command" enabling us to co- operate, associate, identify and thereby consciously bond with G-d and experience His love. This is...

Most people are not aware of the fact that the success of the Entebbe mission was born of a question. In July 1976, an Air France airliner was hijacked and eventually taken to the Entebbe airport in Uganda. After separating the Israelis and passengers with Jewish sounding names, the Arab and German terrorists announced they would soon begin murdering hostages unless their demands were met. A small group of commanders of the elite Israeli commando units, desperate to find a way to save the hostages, were sitting in a briefing room in Tel Aviv as a mission began to form. The plan was to parachute commandoes with fast attack dinghies into Lake Victoria from where they would come ashore and take the airport terminal. Effie Eitam, who would ultimately command one of the units that participated in the rescue raid that would stun the world, was sitting in the briefing room discussing the options, when an Israeli who had spent some time...

Where is G-d, the Miracle Maker? People often say, “If there is really a G-d, why doesn’t He do outright miracles anymore? I would believe in G-d if I saw the ten plagues in Egypt, the sea split or some other supernatural event.” In the past, G-d did miracles in order to prevent some terrible tragedy from happening. G-d overruled the laws of nature to keep the story going—otherwise, it would have ended. But this type of intervention is not the ideal way that G-d wants to act. G-d prefers not to do miracles. He only does them when there is no other way to teach us about His control of nature. People do not really change by witnessing a miracle. Of course, at first they are strongly moved and seem to change. But the awe quickly wears off, and they return to their old ways. We see this human pattern many times in the stories of the Torah. The Israelites witnessed the...

Imagine coming home at the end of a long day. Your wife and children are all home, and you call them into the living room to announce something. Curious, they all sit down on the sofa, waiting to hear what is so important. Perhaps this is your response to some deep, long conversation you had with one of them earlier in the week? What if you simply smiled, introduced yourself to them by name, and walked out of the room? They would probably be calling up the psychiatrist before you could sit down. There are certain things in life we take for granted, and chief among them are the relationships we have built over a lifetime. So one wonders exactly what Hashem is saying at the beginning of this week’s portion. “And G-d spoke to Moshe and said to him ‘I am G-d’.” (Exodus 6:2) Why is G-d introducing Himself to Moshe? Especially considering the point we are at in the story: After seventy-nine years, G-d,...

Identity Crisis is a Gift: Awakening to the Role and Goal of Your Soul Kirk Douglas, z”l, 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...

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. - Aesop  Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel z”tzl, the famed Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir, once met with a small group of businessmen and asked them what they thought the most important lesson of the Holocaust was.   “Never forget?" Suggested one; “Always fight?” posited another. With a sigh, the rabbi explained: ‘I learned the essence of the human spirit; of what really matters.’ During the Holocaust human beings were treated like animals; transported in cattle cars, with no food, no water, no bathrooms, and not even a few feet in which to lie down. Thinking they were headed for work camps, when they finally arrived, and the doors slid open amidst suddenly blinding light, rifle butts, Nazi guards and dogs, men were separated from women, families were broken apart, and children were dragged away screaming. Finally, after the endless roll calls, they were allowed to enter the barracks for what was meant to approximate...