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 Rabbi Elie Mischel | f 13, 2022 | Happiness and Joy, Psalms, Shemini Atzeret
After seven glorious days of the Sukkot festival, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, the party is still not over! Today, the eighth day, is Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Day of Assembly, when the people of Israel yet again celebrate together in great joy: “Seven...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 11, 2022 | Community, Psalms, Sukkot, Temple
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz I grew up reading the Tolkein series, so when I first set foot in a Yeshiva (school for Torah study) and saw a room full of bearded men learning in a strange language from huge tomes, I was thrilled. I was in Gandalf’s academy. Though I never...
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...
