by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 16, 2022 | Chosen Nation, Covenant, Eikev, Israel
Who wouldn’t want free real estate? So when God first approached Abraham and said he was giving his descendants the land of Israel, of course, he said ‘yes!’ But why did God make the offer? Was it because the Jewish people were so amazing? Even with forefathers like...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 15, 2022 | Eikev, Faith, Leadership
I was thirty-nine years old and determined to get married. Being religious and in yeshiva (school for Jewish studies), arranged dates were the way to go and I had been on hundreds of them. Usually, two meetings at a coffee house were enough to determine that there was...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 14, 2022 | Education, Parenting, Shabbat, Va'etchanan
I’ll admit it. I like sleeping in on Shabbat. So when my precious ten-year-old son began nudging my shoulder at 6:00 AM on Saturday morning, I was tempted to roll over and hide under the blankets. But I didn’t. Being a parent is not a nine-to-five job, it is 24/7 and...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 11, 2022 | Prayer, Va'etchanan
In the summer of 1914, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook – the future Chief Rabbi of British-controlled Palestine and one of the leading Rabbinic thinkers of modern times – was in Berlin, on his way to an important Rabbinic conference in Frankfurt. The conference...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 11, 2022 | 15th of Av, Community, Happiness and Joy, Israel, Marriage and Relationships, Ninth of Av, Psalms, Temple, Yom Kippur
The fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Av is a post-biblical holiday. According to Jewish tradition, it is one of the happiest days of the year, as the Mishna states: “Israel had no holidays as joyous as Tu B’Av (the 15th of the Hebrew month of Av) and Yom Kippur...
