by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 25, 2022 | Cheshvan, Holiness, Psalms, Tishrei
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz When I first began learning in yeshiva (school for Torah learning), one of my rabbis told me that being a religious Jew was a form of insanity. This helped explain the strange hairstyles with wild earlocks, the strings hanging out of my...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 23, 2022 | Community, Education, God, Good and Evil, Happiness and Joy, Hebrew Language, Psalms
By Rabbi Avi Baumol Much has been written about the first Psalm. Rav Yudan, a fourth century Palestinian scholar, considered it “the choicest of all Psalms.” That being said, it is incumbent upon us to understand the uniqueness of this poem, and why King David began...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 23, 2022 | Faith, God, Good and Evil, Gratitude, Psalms, Redemption, Temple, Tests and Trials
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz According to Jewish tradition, King David was the author of the Book of Psalms, known in Hebrew as Tehillim. Reading the Psalms, I always imagined a young David running around Israel, having adventures, suffering trials and tribulations, and...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 21, 2022 | Bereishit, Kindness and Compassion, Responsibility
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz My older son began learning in a special high school three years ago. Before my second son began the same school this year, I took my older son aside for a cup of coffee and a father-son talk on the back deck. “I want you to keep an eye on...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 19, 2022 | Israel
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz An old friend of mine used to learn at Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva (school for Torah study) in Jerusalem. While learning there, he used to visit Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, a leader in the Religious Zionist movement, who was very old at the time. On one...
