07th December 2009
Standing on the corner of 95th and Broadway, I had a perfect opportunity to observe peoples’ faces. I love the fact that New York provides a glimpse of people from all over the world. I tried counting how many different countries were represented by the...
27th November 2009
I was trying to turn right and was waiting for people to finish crossing the street. I considered forcing my way through, after all, it was New York City, but there was a policeman at the corner attempting to direct traffic. Some drivers and pedestrians o...
26th October 2009
“Why can’t you be like other kids who behave perfectly?” is a refrain I often hear parents complaining to their children. Yes, there were and are certainly moments when I wish my children were as “perfect” as other kids, but those moments are ra...
19th October 2009
In Honor of the Holy Breslaver’s Yahrtzeit
Xerxes was furious. His engineers had constructed a bridge across the Hellespont in 480 BC, and an act of God had taken out the bridge. Xerxes blamed both the sea and the hapless engineers:
“As soon as ...
15th October 2009
My wife and I turned onto 26th street, between 6th and 7th, the New York City area known as ‘The Plant District’, and strange things began to happen. Storeowners ran outside and began to pull their security gates down, closing their stores. Others wer...
09th October 2009
The twelve-hour drive from Toronto for our annual Succot visit with my grandparents left me bruised, battered, and drained by all the fights my sister began with me. (I, of course, never started a fight.) We arrived in 1968, post riots Baltimore. Although...
02nd October 2009
I love water. I love the ocean. I love waterfalls. I love to go whitewater rafting. I love to swim. I love the Mikvah – Ritual Bath.
I hate water. I hate finding water on the floor of my study. I hate when our garage is flooded. I hate having my clot...
29th September 2009
The Chafetz Chaim had an interesting approach to the Talmudic statement that “Whoever forgets the Torah he has studied has forfeit part of his eternal life.” (Chapters of Our Fathers 3:8) It is commonly understood to refer to someone who does not cons...
23rd September 2009
I was putting the final touches on my first Yom Kippur sermon in my new synagogue. I wanted to begin with an acknowledgment that I hurt people even though I had only been there for a month or two, and I wanted people to learn to ask for forgiveness. I was...
07th September 2009
“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered (zacharti) God. My prayer came to You in Your Holy Sanctuary.” (Jonah 2:8)
The Midrash (Shocher Tov 62) on the verse “Every breath shall praise the Lord,” (Psalm 150:6) teaches that with every breat...
23rd July 2009
The problem occurs at this point: I must recite a second blessing after “Who creates fruit of the trees”: “Shehechiyanu”: The blessing we recite over a new fruit. The problem, specifically because of globalization is this:
The fruit on the left...
09th July 2009
I love asking people if they feel that God loves them. Most respond,"Yes!"; I then ask the more challenging question: "How do you know?"; That's when it becomes interesting.
I invite you to join me in raising a toast to God, Who made it very clear to m...
28th June 2009
I need help understanding Moshe’s prayer at the end of Beha’alotecha: “Moshe cried out to God, saying, “Please, God, heal her now!” Rashi offers two explanations for this concise prayer: 1) Moshe did not want Israel to criticize him for spendin...
23rd June 2009
Having been the poster child of the 99lb weakling for all those Charles Atlas ads in the back of my childhood comic books, I feel that I must inform my friends, and for that matter, my enemies as well, of my brute strength. My pinky can counteract the gra...
12th June 2009
The verse tells us that we are challenged by false prophets; "for God, your Lord, is testing you to know whether you love
God, your Lord with all your heart and all your soul." Nachmanides explains that God wills to measure our love for Him, in
or...
