DEDICATED IN LOVING MEMORY OF ISAAC GAMEL ז''ל BY HIS FAMILY
Yamim Noraim 5780- Uncovering the Heart
The period of the month of Elul and the Yamim Noraim, known as the High Holiday season, is a great gift, מן הטובות אשר הטיב הי"ת עם ברואיו. Each year we are afforded this opportunity to reflect and to reconnect, to spend weeks engaged with G-d and community on a...
Yamim Noraim 5779: Echad- One!
The period of the month of Elul and the Yamim Noraim, known as the High Holiday season, is a great gift, מן הטובות אשר הטיב השי”ת עם ברואיו. Each year we are afforded this opportunity to reflect and to reconnect, to spend weeks engaged with G-d and community on a...
Purim, Prayer and the 5:1 Ratio
When Adar enters joy increases. When Av enters joy decreases. What is it about these two months that causes joy to fluctuate? There is much discussion in the world of relationships about the ratio of criticism to praise. Marriage researcher John Gottman has found that...
Purim and Yom Kippur: A Concept and a Suggestion
The conflict of the Jewish people and Amalek – central to the story of Purim – is a continuation of the ongoing struggle between their forebears, Yaakov and Eisav. Yaakov and Eisav were twins, but whereas some twins are identical, these twins were opposites. Yaakov...
Yamim Noraim 5778- Making Things Better
The period of the month of Elul and the Yamim Noraim, known as the High Holiday season, is a great gift, מן הטובות אשר הטיב השי”ת עם ברואיו. Each year we are afforded this opportunity to reflect and to reconnect, to spend weeks engaged with G-d and community on a...
The State of the Union: Klal Yisrael’s Core Issues
Imagine a State of the Union address that - instead of measuring progress relative to the promises made during the most recent election campaign - used the yardstick of the values and goals articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Such an...
Chanukah: Hidden Power
Dvar Torah Chanukah 5778 Even as Chanukah celebrates the impressive Hasmonean victory over the Greek armies, we more prominently commemorate the miracle of the hidden flask of Menorah oil. And while the battlefield conjures up images of strength and bluster, Chanukah...
The Disparity Between Intellect and Character: When Is תלמוד מביא לידי מעשה?
Shabbos Shuva 5778 Robert Coles is a professor emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard who taught classes on morality. In a classic essay titled “The Disparity Between Intellect and Character”, he begins as follows: Over 150 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a lecture at...
Humility: The Key to a Better Future
Yom Kippur 5778 – Kol Nidrei I want to read to you a letter, a letter that tells an amazing story. The letter was personal, but made such an impression upon its recipient that he had it published in the Baltimore Jewish Times of April 27,1945. Sidney Cohn - uncle of...
Never Stop Speaking
Yom Kippur 5778 – Yizkor Six weeks ago, I traveled to Atlanta to give a talk commemorating the yahrzeit of an old friend who passed away very suddenly, in his 50’s, a man named Moishe Esral. What was most striking about the experience was the clarity I received from...