Hard nut to crack
Donations. It’s one of the primary themes of the four parshiyos which discuss the construction of the Mishkan that we are currently in the midst of. And there’s a fascinating Midrashic statement regarding donations – or put more precisely, donors – that comes up in the least likely of places. Smack dab in the middle […]
When Down is Up and Up is Down
A heroic space explorer, and he’s being carried away in a stretcher. That actually happens on occasion. The possibility of space travel – albeit limited – is taken for granted. The reality, though, is that the number of hurdles that space-living presents is staggering. Sleep, for example, is no small undertaking. In the zero-gravity of […]
Clean Slate
CO2. As a species, we humans seem to love filling our world with it. Which may bring into question our collective sanity seeing that it can displace O2 and leave us with nothing viable to breathe. Not to mention global warming regarding which we are endlessly told that CO2 is the chief culprit. The good […]
WATCH: Stories Shiur 27 – Addictive Power of Power
A Vote and a Prayer
Where would you go if you needed a place to calm down? A park? A museum? Perhaps you are of the fortunates for whom a Beis Medrash is the greatest source of rejuvenation. But would anyone consider a cemetery a great place to wind down? Well, a pious man who lived more than 1,500 years […]
When in Rome Part II
As ironic as flying to Austria via Rome and Munich right after Tisha b’Av was (see When in Rome Part I), the experience took on a whole new angle for my friend on the way back. With a layover of just over an hour, it was supposed to be a seamless connection to the second […]
WATCH: Mashiach has still not come so how can we be consoled?!
Scorpion Tale – Says Who?!
Ninety-five square meters (= roughly 1,022 square feet) may not sound like much to the American ear, but here in Eretz Yisrael large families somehow manage to make it work. So the fact that my Yerushalmi neighbors are raising upwards of ten children (and often host married children and grandchildren) in their tiny apartment doesn’t […]
When in Rome Part I
A number of years ago, a friend shared with me that he had a very difficult Tisha b’Av. “It was a very hard time for me,” he said. “I spent the past two days watching endless hours of Holocaust videos.” And what exactly prompted that? Well, he had booked a getaway a number of months […]
Familiarly New
Do you like Giant Pandas? If you do then this headline is for you: “For the First Time in History, an Albino Giant Panda Has Been Caught on Camera”. Ok, it’s from 2019, but if you really like pandas, who cares, right? Anyway, that headline was a kind of feeble attempt at “sensationalizing”; but, still, […]
Midnight Flood
True story. Last night I was suddenly woken up at around 1am (I actually managed to get to sleep before 12am!) by the sound of my sixteen-year-old daughter begging my wife to come help her with an emergency. I (re)gained consciousness just as my wife, apparently still half asleep, was trying to convince our daughter […]
WATCH: Stories Shiur 3 – Bar Hadya, Eili, & Avshalom
Stories Shiur 8: The Civil War that Almost Was & Rav Kahana’s Cleft Lip
Your Part in Torah
Are you an eved Hashem?
Are you an eved Hashem? It’s a question that commands our concern throughout the year, and, perhaps, with much greater urgency during the Yamim Noraim season. With teshuva being the mandate of the day, one may sometimes find himself wondering where he really stands. Possibly, many people – maybe even most – would not feel […]