In this week’s torah portion, Chayei Sarah, we learn that Satan told Sarah that Isaac had been sacrificed on an altar, she cried and then died. As I mentioned in last week’s dvar torah, Sarah’s tears were not for naught, they are utilized every Rosh Hashanah, to move G-d’s mercy as we blow the…
Category: Lectures
Lech Lecha, The Origins of Faith
This week’s torah portion has G-d commanding Abraham to leave his family and land to a land that G-d would reveal to him. Faith. We read in the coming torah portions how Abraham is tested by G-d to determine how dedicated he is to G-d, and so that G-d may reward him and his…
The Inevitable Cycle!
“I need something to eat!!!!!”- Is probably the last phrase anyone is likely to utter these days. At least, If they’ve just been through the last bout of holidays. Not to, Gd forbid, reduce the holidays to an eating marathon! Still, if we think that, in general, we eat way too much on a…
Much Ado About #METOO
After allegations that Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood movie producer, sexually harassed his female employees, he was forced to leave his production company, was removed from the prestigious Academy of Arts and Sciences, and created a media sensation with a hashtag #metoo, for women to reveal that they had been sexually harassed as well. Within…
What’s the Derivation of Appreciation
Are you soaked and wet? Are you roaming around in the dark? Is your roof still on? I know this sounds like a question I should be asking you after a rainy Succahs night! But, I’m asking it to the people who were not in the hurricane zones. The way life often works…
The Antidote to Our Entitled Generation
Sukkot is the holiday Jewish families need. by Slovie Jungreis-Wolff In a letter to the parent body of an affluent private NYC school the head of the school described how the school has become a dangerous incubator of indulgence where ostentatious displays of entitlement slip by unquestioned. He wrote of “consumerist families that treat teachers and…
Achakeh Lo/Building Bridges
Building connections. Between man and G-d and man and his fellow man. I started my morning early at the Ohel, my meditation place, listening to the Rebbe’s fabrengen on tape. As I was leaving, my son called from Yeshiva, several thousand miles away. We had spoken a couple of times this week, and it…
What Are You Hungry For?
You’ve got to be impressed with this religion. In preparation for the fast day, we have a fast day! One would have thought that one was enough in such a short time period. The 10 days of repentance start and end with a fast day! So maybe there’s a way to look at…
My Moment of Truth
As my father’s cries entered the deepest crevices of my heart, I had an epiphany. by Slovie Jungreis-Wolff One cold day in January I experienced my own personal wake-up call. My beloved father was a patient in Memorial Sloan-Kettering. He was seriously ill. In just nine weeks we watched my father’s 6 ft. 2 frame wane.…
A BISSEL TORAH: NITZAVIM: INTERNALIZING G-D
These past few weeks, we have discussed how in the month of Elul, G-d comes down from Heaven and is amongst us, closer to us, begging us to get closer to Him. In this week’s Torah portion of Nitzavim there are two verses on which on want to focus: Deuteronomy 30:6 “Umal Hashem Elokechah…