Rabbi's Message

August 2, 2026 19 Av Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof famously told G-d that if money is a curse, he would like G-d to smite him with it. This raises an important question. Is money a blessing or a curse? The answer depends less on money than on us. If you were content when you had little, but wealth placed you on the hedonic treadmill, then your money has become a curse. The more you own, the more you want. Yesterday you were happy with

We all take for granted that food nourishes the body and keeps us alive. But let me ask a simpleton’s question: why does physical food keeps the spiritual soul, our spark of life, in the body? The soul is spiritual. Food is physical. How can something material affect something spiritual? Yet when the body can no longer digest food, the soul departs. What possible connection is there between a loaf of bread and a spiritual soul? You might argue that food doesn’t sustain the so

This Shabbat, we read that we are not permitted to add to or subtract from the Torah. We are to take the Torah as G-d gave it, not less and not more. If G-d told us to hang four fringes on a four-cornered garment, we hang four, not five, and not three. If someone asks whether you are observant, the proper answer is yes. The improper answer is “more or less.” Don’t be more or less observant. Be observant. On Yom Kippur following 9/11, I spoke about this idea. Ten is a complete

July 12, 2026 27 Tammuz This is the time of year when we mourn the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem. Their destruction and the exile that followed had long been foretold. G-d sent prophet after prophet to urge our ancestors to change their ways, but they refused. Eventually, the warnings gave way to punishment. Yet a question remains. We understand why the Jewish people were punished, but why destroy the Temple? The Temple was the heart of Jewish life

I know I speak for all of us when I say that summers were longer when we were younger. These days, it seems the snow starts falling again before it has even finished melting. I know moving to Canada extended my winter, but not by that much. This shift is in the mind. Time is relative: the older we get, the faster it moves. Today, I want to suggest a method to slow it down. I’m not talking about a genetic resequencing to slow down aging. I’m talking about a mental technique th

The Torah, our tradition teaches, was written before G-d in letters of black fire upon white fire. Yet Rabbi Moshe Sofer (the Chatam Sofer) taught a startling idea: some of those letters remained scrambled until the daughters of Tzlafhad appeared and gave them voice. The letters were always there. The message was always true. But until someone possessed the courage to untangle them, the law could not be read. Perhaps the same can be said of us. G-d creates every soul upright

11 Tammuz June 26, 2026 Springing the Well Wellsprings are G-d’s gift to the world. Arid climates become fertile when wells are discovered. Parched and thirsty souls find life, salvation and hope with the discovery of a well. A well discovery is cause for celebration and certainly a reason to praise G-d. It comes as no surprise that our ancestors wrote an ode to G-d to thank Him for a well.[1] It is remarkable when you think about it. Subterranean waterways c

29 Sivan June 13, 2026 In this week’s Torah portion, we read of the rebellion led by Korach against Moses and Aaron. Korach’s accusation was a classic populist play: he argued that Moses and Aaron had staged a power grab, appointing themselves to leadership without G-d’s mandate. His “glib” proof? Because the entire Jewish nation is holy, they didn’t need leaders at all. G-d did not appoint Moses and Aaron; they appointed themselves. This rebellion occurred shor

In this week’s Torah portion, Shelach, we read the famous account of Moses sending spies to scout the Land of Israel. The narrative begins with a curious nuance: G-d tells Moses he may send spies if he wants to. Essentially, G-d declined to command the mission, leaving the decision entirely in Moses’ hands. One might wonder why Moses didn’t take this as a hint that the mission was a bad idea. Why did he proceed? Fascinatingly, we read this story this year on the very day it o

15 Sivan May 30, 2026 For millennia, the Jewish people have been buffeted by global forces. This pressure has not only manifested as oppression, expulsion, and extermination, but also as a powerful cultural pull. Although Judaism introduced revolutionary ideas that reshaped ancient civilization—including human dignity, universal education, and the sanctity of life—we have often felt drawn to the beliefs, lifestyles, and value syste

8 Sivan May 24, 2026 The sacred tasks associated with the Tabernacle that travelled with our ancestors through the desert were divided among the families of the tribe of Levi. The Kohanim performed the sacrificial service, while the Levites served as honor guards and were responsible for assembling, disassembling, and transporting the Tabernacle.When the Tabernacle was inaugurated, the princes of the twelve tribes brought inaugural

This week, we celebrate Shavuot, the day we received the Torah on Mount Sinai. It was 3338 years ago, in 2448 in the Hebrew calendar. Our ancestors arrived at Sinai six days earlier and spent the time preparing spiritually for this pivotal moment. They resolved their arguments and forged true national unity. They accepted an invitation to be G-d’s chosen people. When asked, they replied, “We will do, and we will listen.” They were primed. They were excited. What did G-d do d

23 Iyar May 9, 2026 The title of this week’s essay, “How to Talk So Children Will Listen,” borrows from the well-known parenting book by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. Here, however, the lesson comes not from modern parenting literature, but from this week’s Torah portion. The Torah presents some of the laws of the priesthood and introduces the first priests: “These are the descendants of Aaron and Moses on the day G-d spoke to Moses at Mount Sina

16 Iyar May 2, 2026 The Torah portion we read this week is not easy to absorb. It is one of two places in the Torah where G-d describes the severe consequences of sin. The imagery is so stark that it can leave one shaken. In Chabad tradition, it is said that Rabbi Dovber, the second Rebbe, fainted as a child upon hearing the rebuke read aloud. Though that story refers to the other rebuke I mentioned earlier, the emotional truth is the same. The Love

G-d asks us to journey through life believing that our fellow is golden—to see people through their strengths rather than their faults. Sadly, we rarely rise to that ideal. More often than not, we define others by their shortcomings. Rabbi Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lisa was a renowned scholar whose works are studied to this day. Once, a member of his congregation asked him to determine the precise moment the new moon would appear, and the new month would begin. Unable to calculate

This week’s Torah portion describes the intricate rituals of Yom Kippur. On this singular day, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies five times, the only occasion in the year when such entry was permitted. The Torah introduces these instructions by recalling the tragic passing of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu. Why did they die? They entered the Holy of Holies unbidden, driven by a yearning to experience sublime closeness with G-d. Their intent was lofty, but they f

This week’s Torah portion speaks of the mysterious lesions that appeared on the skin of those who trafficked in gossip. Their punishment was at once severe and precise: they were cast into isolation for up to three weeks, until their affliction healed. The Torah enumerates many forms of ritual impurity. Some bar entry into the Temple; others exclude one from Jerusalem. But the impurity of the metzora is of a different order altogether. It does not merely distance a person fr

Passover is behind us. The question is: what lies ahead? Yes, summer stretches out before us in all its glory (at least in this hemisphere). Plans must be made, pools opened, and the baseball season has returned. But none of that is really about Passover. So what is? What does Passover—now behind us—ask of us today? Of course, there are practical matters: paying the holiday bills, cleaning away the last crumbs of matzah, restoring the kitchen, and figuring out what to do with

When we raise the matzah at the Seder table, we are tuning into two contradictory experiences.First, we encounter the matzah as the “bread of affliction,” as we attest at the opening of the Haggadah. This is the meager ration of bondage—the cracker-like bread the Egyptians forced upon our ancestors because they wouldn’t provide the time or means for a real meal. Yet, by the end of the Haggadah, the narrative shifts: matzah becomes the “bread of freedom.”[1] It reminds us of t

When Moses arrived in Egypt after sixty years of exile, claiming that the G-d of their ancestors had summoned him to liberate the Hebrews, a remarkable thing happened: the people believed him. This was a nation crushed by centuries of backbreaking labor and systematic oppression, yet they accepted the word of a man who looked like an Egyptian noble and had been absent for decades. What made Moses the right person to lead the Exodus? Why did G-d choose him, and at what precise