by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Nov 1, 2018 | Lifeline
Readers know that I have written about anti-Semitism for a long time. Our hearts reel at its manifestation in a Pittsburgh synagogue last Shabbos morning. The Medrash says that Sarah passed away when she believed that her son Yitzchak had indeed died at HaShem’s...
by Mordechai Dixler | Oct 25, 2018 | Lifeline
The Sages of the Talmud say that there were 10 times that Abraham’s faith in G-d was tested, and he succeeded each time. The final test was to follow the command to slaughter his son Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice. Although Isaac was the child for whom he...
by Mordechai Dixler | Oct 18, 2018 | Lifeline
Are the values and opinions we hold dear really our own? We all take pride in thinking for ourselves, but are not many (all?) of our personal positions an echo of the culture we were raised in, or drawn from the last social media posting we read? From the shop of...
by Mordechai Dixler | Oct 4, 2018 | Lifeline
In the beginning G-d created the Heavens and the Earth… The High Holiday prayer books have been shelved, the Sukkah is stored away (or at least that’s the plan), and we start reading the Torah again from the beginning. The custom of restarting the Torah...
by Mordechai Dixler | Sep 27, 2018 | Lifeline
We’ve all become amateur meteorologists. In the northeastern United States the weather during the past week has ranged from cloudy to fog to rain, with rain having more than a fair share. Under normal circumstances, we would stay inside under shingled roofs, and...
by Mordechai Dixler | Sep 17, 2018 | Lifeline
Yom Kippur is tomorrow night. What happens on this, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar? “Kippur” is often translated as atonement — to make reparation for bad deeds, and restore a relationship damaged by those offenses. That is a good description...
