by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Oct 30, 2015 | Lifeline
It is as predictable as sunrise. At roughly this time of the year, someone claims the mantle of religious authority in order to announce that Avraham “failed” the test of the Akeidah, of sacrificing his son. Why? Because, the speaker insists, Avraham...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Oct 23, 2015 | Lifeline
Do you like your house? “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” It is human nature to find comfort in familiar surroundings, friends and neighbors, even habits. What does G-d tell Abraham? Go. Leave your home, go out “from your...
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...
