BEING G-D’S FIRSTBORN Parashat Shemot The hardest question to answer as a religious Jew is, if G-d is everything, and G-d is good, then why is the world so messed up? Why is there so much bad in the world? Couldn’t G-d create a world in which things would just make more sense? The answer…
Read Full PostSOMETHING FOR THE KIDS Parashat Vayechi Someone asked me a few days after Hanukah how my vacation was. I answered that I am still בחפש. (I am still on vacation.) He asked me why I am still on vacation a week after Hanukah. I told him בחפש is also the acronym for the four things…
Read Full PostA JEW COVERED IN FISH GOOK
A JEW COVERED IN FISH GOOK Parashat Vayigash One of the greatest psychological challenges we all deal with throughout life is defining who we are and discovering our value. G-d made Man with a need to feel he has value. This is why when Man cannot find an intrinsic value within himself, he searches for…
Read Full PostPREPARED FOR THE WORST
PREPARED FOR THE WORST Parashat Miketz The most powerful way to teach someone a lesson, to change his story, his perspective, is through the power of a parable, a mashal, a story of some imaginary, made-up man. Because when someone tries to change how we think, we are too close to our own perspective,…
Read Full PostGALUT AMERICA
GALUT AMERICA Hanukah In the days of the wicked Greek rule over Israel, it was decreed that every Jew whose house had a beam (to lock the door, as was the custom in those days) had to inscribe on it that he has no portion in the G-d of Israel. Immediately, the Jews got rid…
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