by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Oct 16, 2015 | Lifeline
In this week’s Torah reading, humanity engages in two different sorts of evil. One generation becomes rife with theft and immorality, and the population is wiped out. Then a later generation unites to rebel against G-d, and G-d confuses their languages and...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Oct 9, 2015 | Lifeline
This week, we begin a new cycle of reading the Torah. The Torah begins, of course, by describing G-d’s Creation of Heaven and Earth. And at the end, He rested. G-d, of course, did not need to rest. The Almighty, Creator of time itself, has no need for time off...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Sep 21, 2015 | Lifeline
This past January, the Jewish world lost a tremendous resource: Rabbi Dovid Winiarz zt”l, who was known online as the “Facebuker Rebbe.” For him, Jewish outreach was about one thing above all else: finding what he could do for you, and trying to do...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Sep 11, 2015 | Lifeline
Prior to Rosh Hashanah, we read the Torah portion of Nitzavim, “standing.” This comes from the first verse: “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God, your heads, your tribes, your elders and your guards, every person of...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Sep 4, 2015 | Lifeline
When we come to this week’s reading, I always remember the way my teacher Rabbi Asher Rubenstein zt”l spoke about the poor person bringing his first fruits to the Temple. The Torah obligates a person to be happy. It is part of the Commandment to bring the...
