Rabbi's Message

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

On the first day of the month of Nissan, fifteen days before the Exodus, G-d said to Moses, “This month, you and I will be redeemed, for we will be redeemed together” (Shemot Rabbah 15:2). What happens to us happens to G-d. If we are in exile, so is G-d. If His children are free, G-d is free as well. That sounds beautiful and deeply stirring—but what does it mean that G-d is in exile, and what does it mean that G-d is free? We know very well what exile means for us. We have p

What is worse than a philandering marriage therapist, an obese dietitian, or a lying ethics counselor? A conceited man of G-d. The two are mutually exclusive; you are either a servant of G-d or a servant of your ego. There is a story of an ethics professor caught cheating on his taxes who defended himself by saying, “My colleague teaches algebra; does that mean he has to become a triangle?” In the secular world, knowledge may be academic, but in the spiritual world, you canno

Sometimes we quietly wonder whether life is fair. Others seem to glide from one simchah to the next, while our own milestones arrive tangled in stress. A wedding overshadowed by tragedy. A birthday marked by conflict. A promotion paired with a crisis. Even our happiest moments feel fragile. Why does joy come mixed with pain? Why does celebration so often carry interruption? We rarely say it out loud, but many of us carry this question. Purim offers a profound answer — one tha

This week, we study the vestments worn by the High Priest as he performed his service in the Temple. The High Priest represents the epitome of holiness; he is the closest a human can be to G d. Selected to represent the entire nation in prayer, supplication, offering, and song to the Almighty, he embodies divine service. He is G d’s servant par excellence, the earthly manifestation of G dliness. His vestments were carefully designed by G d down to the finest detail. This is b