by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | May 4, 2012 | Lifeline
On Monday, Paul Miller, a Senior Editor at a “technology-focused news publication” called The Verge, announced that he was quitting the Internet for a year. He’s switched to a “dumb” phone, and has pledged to neither use the Internet nor...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Apr 20, 2012 | Lifeline
This week, I cannot refer to “this week’s reading” and be universally accurate. The Torah portion read this week in Israel is “out of sync” with the rest of the world, a phenomenon that will continue for another month. This is because...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Mar 23, 2012 | Lifeline
Just the first word of this week’s Torah reading contains a beautiful lesson. That word is VaYikra, “and he called,” referring to G-d calling to Moses. Vayikra indicates a connection between the two parties, whereas without the final Aleph,...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Mar 7, 2012 | Lifeline
One of the major themes of the holiday of Purim is that events around us may not be as they seem, that this is a “topsy-turvy world” where things may be the opposite of what they appear to be. Reading the Megillah, one gets the impression that Mordechai...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Feb 17, 2012 | Lifeline
Many people labor under the misimpression that the traditional Jewish Sabbath, (Shabbos or Shabbat, depending upon whose pronunciation you use) is a limiting experience. You can’t go places, you can’t do things, you can’t even pick up the telephone...
