CHOCHMAS NASHIM: NOACH: MISGUIDED Unity By: Suri Davis   In this week’s torah portion, we see that G-d destroys the world because of evil, evil between man and his fellow man.  Last week’s torah portion, Genesis, we read how G-d created man in His image with the potential to act and be G-dlike, merciful, kind,…

Chochmas Nashim: YIZKOR: AN ESSAY By: Suri Davis   It has been a year and a half since my father, ZTL, passed away, and since I started saying Yizkor for him.  As Orthodox Jews, we are taught that the soul is eternal.  We know from the Book of Jeremiah, and Rachel’s tears upon the horizon,…

CHOCHMAS NASHIM: SUKKOTH AND SIMCHAT TORAH: THE GIFT OF THE MAGI By: Suri Davis   Where are we?  We have just completed Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?  At our Kol Nidre service on Yom Kippur, we ask G-d’s permission to pray with sinners/avaryanim.  All are welcome to repent.  After Yom Kippur, we are all alike,…

CHOCHMAS NASHIM: DEEP DIVE INTO FORGIVING OTHERS By: Suri Davis So much air time is dedicated to Teshuvah, man’s asking G-d and his fellow man for forgiveness, so little to the real act of forgiving others.  Maimonides discusses the three steps to asking for forgiveness, which are regretting that one has sinned, confessing to the…

CHOCHMAS NASHIM:  TRUSTING THE KING By: Suri Davis   This year, my focus is on Bitachon/Trust in G-d.  I started podcasting my first podcast, Be Bitachon on Spotify, after losing two very close relatives. Honestly, I read Shaar Habitachon by Rabbi Bachya Ibn Pekudah four times this year, because I felt resistance to his concepts…

CHOCHMAS NASHIM: KI TAVO: GRATITUDE AND SEYCHEL By: Suri Davis Stern               The parshah almost appears to be a repetition of parshat Bechukotai, if you follow G-d’s commandments, you will be rewarded, and if you don’t follow G-d’s commandments, then you will be punished.  A recurring theme in any religion.  Let’s review some interesting…

CHOCHMAS NASHIM: KI TEITZEI: PI SHNAYIM By:  Suri Davis     This week’s torah portion discusses leaving a double portion of a man’s estate to the eldest son.  It appears in the Toras Menachem edition of Deuteronomy that this mitzvah is not counted among the 27 mitzvahs/commandments/good deeds set forth in the torah portion.  …

CHOCHMAS NASHIM: SHOFTIM: G-D’S MESSENGERS By:  Suri Davis   Wouldn’t it be nice, if we were ill, to be able to walk into G-d’s clinic and say, heal me.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if as children, we woke up to G-d’s voice, and he fed us our breakfast and sent us off to school.  Wouldn’t…

CHOCHMAS NASHIM: RE’EH: GODLINESS By: Suri Davis   What is it like to be Godlike? G-d created the world with perfection and goodness, man repays that kindness with sin.  This parshah/torah portion and its connection with the haftorah.  Fascinating!!!   The very first verse peaks our interest.  See I, G-d, give before you today blessing…

CHOCHMAS NASHIM: EIKEV:  AYEKA/WHERE ARE YOU? By: Suri Davis   Deuteronomy 7:17: “When you say to your heart, the enemy outnumbers me, eichah/how can I conquer them.” Deuteronomy 8:5:  “And know in your heart, that as a man censures his child, so too does G-d censure/punish you.”   During the three weeks between the surrounding…