Permit me to share with you my paraphrase of a Chanukah thought expressed best by the legendary Mirer Rosh Yeshiva (Dean of the Mir Torah Academy, transplanted from Lithuania to Jerusalem and NY) Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz (1902-1978) in his collection of discourses entitled Sichos Mussar.
The Jewish People were physical endangered during the Second Temple period, but […]
My apologies to those who are not familiar with baseball; hopefully the message will be clear even to those who do not share that childhood experience with me.
Legend has it (I’ve not seen it confirmed anywhere) that baseball great Ty Cobb once commented that Babe Ruth (the home run king of his time) didn’t play […]
Human beings have always attempted to push against the limits imposed on them by their nature, but we seem to have few tools for doing so when the nature we are dealing with is internal. We try to build buildings which push the limits of physics; we create and play games which tax the […]
ed note: The following requires an understanding of the basics of Mussar; the ideal, the real and the process. If you have not done so yet, please be sure to study the introduction to Mussar carefully.
There is an ideal called Bitachon which, loosely translated, means assurance drawn from HaShem, and is associated with […]
There are now two free classes about Elul (the current month preparatory to Rosh HaShanah) available on the audio page, one of which was delivered this morning. I hope that you find them helpful. You are encouraged to comment - I look forward to growing with you and because of you! The first two installments of The […]
Dear Friend,
Thank you for your question and for the opportunity to clarify important aspects of prayer or Tefilah. To get us started we must take a look at the purpose of Jewish prayer.
Prayer is an opportunity for me to review my sense of G-d’s Providence. That means that when I pray I judge my own […]