• Purim 2011: Purim Versus Halloween

    The leaves fall and the air turns crisp and an underlying feeling of fear and foreboding enters our neighborhoods.   Graves pop us in front yards along with skeletons and the like, bringing death out of its boundaries and into our domains.  Parents, many Jewish parents included, will encourage their children to dress up in frightful…

  • Rosh Hashanah: A day of Insight not Atonement

    What is the difference between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?  We often refer to both as days of judgment, yet they seem as different as night and day.  Rosh Hashanah is a Yom Tov, a joyous holiday, on which we eat and drink and have simcha, joy.   In contrast, on Yom Kippur we are filled with awe and…

  • Rosh Hashanah 2011

    On September 17th and 18th this year Jewish people around the world will celebrate the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.   The word Rosh Hashanah does not mean “new year,” it literally means in Hebrew, “The head of the year.”     Our head is the limb that controls our body, which contains our brains, our faces,…

  • Shavuot 2011 – Seeing the Sincerity in Those with Whom we Disagree

    It is not easy for the Jewish people to see themselves as one. They label each other heretics and fanatics, and deem each other guilty of undermining the welfare, identity, and religious underpinnings of the Jewish people as a whole. Some have noted that unfortunately it often takes persecution to bring Jewish unity.   Hitler…

  • Passover 2011 – The 10th Plague and the Sanctification of the First Born

    In the past few Torah portions we have been reading of the Jewish People’s Exodus from Egypt.  The 10th plague, the smiting of the firstborn, seems to be the final catalyst which precipitates Pharos’ freeing of the slaves.  Curiously, just after the firstborn in Egypt are killed the Jewish people are told, “…therefore you shall sanctify…

  • Rediscovering Prayer

    Perhaps I speak only for myself but I think generally we have lost the concept of prayer.  The upside of prayer in the Orthodox community is that we do it often.  But this is also the downside.  As a result of the commonness of our prayer I think, at least for me, prayer often can…

  • Rosh Hashanah 2009

    The Talmud states:  “We anoint kings next to a spring of water so that their kingship should continue to give forth like a spring…Rabbi Ammi said, “If one is about to engage in business and wishes to know whether he will succeed or not, let him get a rooster and feed it; if it grows…

  • Passover 2009

    Regarding the Seder night Maimonides writes, “In every generation a person is obligated to see themselves as if they, right now, have gone out from the slavery of Egypt.  So does the Torah write, “remember that you were a slave,” meaning it is as if you yourself were a slave and have gone out to…

  • Passover/Shabbat HaGadol 2006

    In addition to Passover we also celebrate the Shabbat preceding it.  In fact this Shabbat has a special name, Shabbat Hagodol, The Great Shabbat. The Torah writes,  And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron…Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take everyone a lamb,…