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 | Repentance
As a child, I was fascinated by science fiction. I remember sitting in front of a black and white television set when I was eight years old as I watched Neil Armstrong take his first “small step” onto the moon. I always knew that this was only the beginning. To me,...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 29, 2022 | Fast of Gedaliah, Good and Evil, Jeremiah, Repentance, Rosh Hashana
Today, the day after Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew New Year), Jews observe a minor fast day from dawn until dusk. This fast day, known as the Fast of Gedaliah, laments the assassination of a righteous governor of the Kingdom of Judah named Gedaliah. Though the murder of...
by Rabbi Elie Mischel | f 21, 2022 | Repentance
Fifteen years ago, when I was working as a corporate attorney in New Jersey, I joined a volunteer program in which lawyers helped Holocaust survivors fill out incredibly long and detailed applications for Holocaust reparations from Germany. Though this was more than...
