by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 3, 2022 | Faith, God, Jonah, Light Unto the Nations, Prayer, Repentance, Rosh Hashana, Sukkot, Temple, Tishrei, Yom Kippur, Zechariah
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz When I think about the High Holidays, I picture synagogues full of Jews, the men wrapped in snow-white prayer shawls swaying silently, the women praying fervently. They are Jewish holidays and the pinnacle of the Hebrew calendar. These are...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 3, 2022 | Elul, Faith, Holiness, Prayer, Psalms, Purity, Repentance, Rosh Hashana, Tests and Trials
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz I had the remarkable merit of learning in Yeshiva (school for Torah study) with Barya Shachter, now a truly inspirational leader of a spiritual community. He is the son of Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, the dynamic founder of the Jewish...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 2, 2022 | Repentance
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz My teenage son came to me on the Sabbath with a real dilemma: “Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is impossible,” he said. I understood him and, to be honest, a large part of his dilemma came from listening to me. Yom Kippur is the day when we beg...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 30, 2022 | Repentance
Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg (1726-1778), an early Hasidic master and kabbalist in Poland, once told the following story (as recorded in Bar Mitzvah & Tefillin Secrets: The Mysteries Revealed by Rabbi Dovid Meisels): A man left his house on a very hot day, intent...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 29, 2022 | Faith, Humility, Israel, Leadership, Vayeilech
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz The world is going through a crisis in leadership. So many countries are struggling with essential issues. Israel is about to go to the polls for the fifth time in three years. Great Britain just lost Queen Elizabeth who, until her death, was...
