by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | May 14, 2013 | Lifeline
Passover has Matzah, the Seder, and wine. Sukkos has the Four Species and the Sukkah. But what does Shavuos have? It has the Torah! This is the day when God gave the Torah to the Jewish people. And because our holidays are not simply commemorations, but eternal links...
by Mordechai Dixler | May 2, 2013 | Lifeline
Last night I got one of “those” shopping carts. Finding it blocking the supermarket door, I figured this cart was somehow meant for me. As I prepared to push it down the aisle, though, my misfortune became clear: the wheels forcefully veered to the right....
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Apr 26, 2013 | Lifeline
In this week’s reading, the Torah talks about Shabbos, the Sabbath. In this case, however, it comes with an unusual introduction. “Speak to the Children of Israel, and say to them the festivals of G-d, which you shall declare, the Holy Convocation —...
by Mordechai Dixler | Apr 18, 2013 | Lifeline
Many of us could write up a list of rules for how we’d like to be treated by our friends. Most don’t have a physical list to hand out to people (although it might reduce some painful guesswork if we did), but this is how the list might look: Be sincere...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Apr 12, 2013 | Lifeline
In this week’s reading, we read about the punishment of tzara’as, which is often mistranslated as “leprosy” because it could appear as a white blemish on skin. it was a purely spiritual punishment, however, which only existed long before the...
by Mordechai Dixler | Mar 21, 2013 | Lifeline
I would like to share with you a true story, which I think has a message for us as we prepare for Passover. There was a young family; father, mother, and one very young daughter. The father was a salesman, whose job required him to travel around the country. The...