Do the Right Thing
Yaakov blesses all of his sons before he dies. But before this, Yosef takes his sons Ephraim and Menashe to see their grandfather, who gives them a special blessing -- first and foremost, by elevating them to have the same status as his own children. Throughout the...
All According to Plan
If there is one lesson to be learned from this week's reading and those of the past few weeks, said Rav Asher Rubenstein zt"l, it is that G-d runs the world, and He has a Plan. We can either follow the plan, or we can fight the plan, but it's going to happen anyways....
More than 8 Days
Lighting the Menorah each night after dark, seeing the children's excitement for this beautiful Mitzvah, and singing Hallel, the festival prayer of gratitude, praise, and hope each morning for 8 days, is a reservoir of inspiration that it would be a shame to waste....
Certainly Wrong
I was once driving with my wife, way back in the pre-GPS days when you actually had to remember directions. She was driving, and approached a T in the road with her left-turn signal on. "Wait!" I said. "Not left, definitely not left!" We arrived at the intersection,...
Dental Admonition
The Medrash tells us many things not found in the written text of the Torah. It is, in fact, crucial to our understanding, because otherwise many passages could be misunderstood and misconstrued. Sometimes, however, statements in the Medrash appear to conflict with...
The Rewards of Honesty
In Jewish sources, our forefather Yaakov is always identified with the character trait of honesty, of dedicating himself to truth. Sometimes this seems difficult to understand -- after all, he deceived his father in order to claim the blessings of the firstborn son....
The Test of Time
The Torah reading this week begins: "These are the generations of Yitzchak ben Avraham, Avraham fathered Yitzchak" [25:19]. It seems redundant to say that "Avraham fathered Yitzchak" -- the Torah has, by this time, presented in great detail the circumstances of...
Building from the Dirt
Following the death of his wife Sarah, Avraham purchases the Machpela cave from Ephron the Hittite to use as a burial site. Ephron makes it sound as if he is prepared to give the cave to Avraham, but in the end takes a tremendous sum for the property. At the end of...
Elimelech – American Hero
Have you ever heard of Elimelech Goldberg? Don't worry, I hadn't either. [Dr. Elimelech Goldstein, the volunteer medical director of Hatzalah of Baltimore, is a friend and former roommate, but that's another story entirely.] But if you're familiar with the Orthodox...
A “Lot” of Losses
In this week's reading, we learn about two wealthy individuals. Avram, as he was then called, gave up his local work and reputation to move to the land of Cana'an, where, he was told, he would receive much greater blessings. And, as promised, he prospered. The Torah...
Come for Shabbos!
One of the themes of the holiday of Sukkos is that we are all bound together. The Torah tells us to take four species: the Esrog, a citrus fruit with a pleasant taste and smell; the Lulav from a Date Palm which produces fruit but is not fragrant; Hadasim, myrtle...
System Reset
On Yom Kippur, we are invited to "clean the slate" of all the misdeeds of the past year. In a way, it's like hitting the reset button. When we restart our computer, all of the old programs that were sitting there, using memory and slowing down the machine, are cleared...
