Seder Reflections: Where are you coming from?
Rabbi Mordechai Rhine – Torah Links of Cherry Hill www.teach613.org The Pesach seder revolves around one simple phrase. “Start with the negative, and conclude with the positive.” The Talmud records two...
View ArticleAccepting Rabbinic Authority – Is The Individualistic American Outlook a...
When we think of America, one of the core principles is freedom. The Bill of Rights enshrined and gave freedom a legal foundation. Much of American history, whether in the debates against slavery and...
View ArticleBT Syndrome
By R. W. University of Texas I suffer from something Maybe you’re familiar…? You see, I’m not from around here. Saturday morning cartoons and Micky D’s after Volleyball You played sports? YES I played...
View ArticleWearing My BT Badge with Pride
This is a response to the post, Can and Should BTs become Virtually Indistinguishable? I wish I could have seen the entirety of the letter for the Kiruv organization that was quoted. My immediate gut...
View ArticleOpposites Attract…AND Repel
If I say to the girl “Tip your jug over and let me drink” and she responds, “Drink, and I will water your camels as well” she is the one whom You have verified [as the mate] for Your servant Yitzchak....
View ArticleThe “Absolute Value” of Middos
VaYetzai 5774-An addendum in the series From the Waters of the Shiloah: Plumbing the Depths of the Izhbitzer School For series introduction CLICK By Rabbi Dovid Schwartz-Mara D’Asra Cong Sfard of...
View ArticleIf You Can’t Stand the Light, Get Out of the Vision
Bo5774-An installment in the series From the Waters of the Shiloah: Plumbing the Depths of the Izhbitzer School For series introduction CLICK By Rabbi Dovid Schwartz-Mara D’Asra Cong Sfard of Midwood...
View ArticleShabbos … the Great Unifying Principle
Vayakhel 5774-An installment in the series of adaptations From the Waters of the Shiloah: Plumbing the Depths of the Izhbitzer School For series introduction CLICK By Rabbi Dovid Schwartz-Mara D’Asra...
View ArticleWe are ‘Jewish’ Stardust
By Avraham Rosenblum of the Diaspora Band On January 4th, 1971, I disembarked from the EL AL Boeing 707 at Lod Airport, suitcase and guitar in hand, in need of a change of scene. What I didn’t expect...
View ArticleI’m Happy … Feeling like a Room without a Glass Roof
Is Judaism a meritocracy or an aristocracy? Why do we dwell in our Sukkos on Shabbos but do not fulfill the mitzvah of Lulav on Shabbos? Why is a stolen Lulav invalid for performing the mitzvah when...
View ArticleOf Fanatical Humility and Impetuous Self-Confidence
Why were there some who hoarded the manna? What turned Wormy before it even spoiled? Why did Yisro arrive right after the disaster at Rephidim? Moshe said to them, “let no man leave any [mann-manna;]...
View ArticleFalling In or Standing Out?
Why is Viduy Maasros called a viduy when we aren’t confessing to any wrongdoing? Chazal teach us that on Rosh Hashanah we are judged collectively and individually. How is that possible? … I have...
View ArticleWorking Smarter — After Working Hardest
VaYetzai From the Waters of the Shiloah: Plumbing the Depths of the Izhbitzer School For series introduction CLICK By Rabbi Dovid Schwartz-Mara D’Asra Cong Sfard of Midwood She (Leah) was pregnant once...
View ArticleLed Zeppelin & Frum Culture
As a BT, I’ve often felt the clash between the culture I grew up in and the “frum” culture I’ve been living in for so long. One of the areas the clash always made itself evident to me was music. I just...
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