by Mordechai Dixler | Sep 13, 2012 | Lifeline
What has more power to change the present than crying? When someone we love begins to cry – a child, a friend, a spouse – it’s as if the world stops in its place. “What’s happened?” “You’re upset about something.”...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Sep 7, 2012 | Lifeline
With the presidential race now so prominent in the collective American consciousness, the following story is especially apropos. In the Ohr Somayach Yeshiva in Jerusalem, there was an elderly native of the city who prayed with the Yeshiva each morning. On the morning...
by Mordechai Dixler | Aug 24, 2012 | Lifeline
Yesterday, while on vacation with the family, I took a fascinating tour of George’s Furniture woodwork shop in Marietta, Pennsylvania. One of the many things that impressed and inspired me was how the craftsmen manage to use absolutely every part of the wood....
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Aug 17, 2012 | Lifeline
This week’s reading begins with G-d’s promise to bless those who follow the Commandments, and a curse upon those who go away from them to follow false gods. It is obvious, then, that there’s a big gap between the two. One could hope not to stumble...
by Mordechai Dixler | Aug 10, 2012 | Lifeline
The Talmud says that a Jew is obligated to pray, based upon Deuteronomy 11:13: “serve Him with all your thoughts — Livavchem — and with all your soul.” Livavchem is a form of the Hebrew word Leiv, which is most often translated as the heart. In...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Aug 3, 2012 | Lifeline
This week’s reading contains “Shema Yisrael” — “Hear, oh Israel, the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One.” [Deut. 6:4] And what is the next verse? “And you will love HaShem your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with...
