by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 22, 2022 | God, Numbers, Shemini Atzeret, Sukkot
Last week was our anniversary and our kids threw us a surprise party. They invited all of our friends and brought in spectacular catering. It was amazing and the party went on until the early hours of the morning with the guests trickling away. The next morning, we...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 17, 2022 | Covenant, God, Messiah, Prayer, Redemption, Seventeenth of Tammuz, Temple
There are many days that are auspicious, commemorated for a powerful event that happened on that date, earning them personal or even national significance. Birthdays and national holidays are like this. The same is true for sad days commemorating tragic events. People...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 15, 2022 | Mourning, Tammuz, Temple
My son had his blanky; the blanket he used in the crib when a baby. Over the years, we tried to replace it but to no avail. Now that he was ten years old, we had given up on replacing the now-tattered piece of cloth. I tried half-heartedly to protest when I saw him...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 3, 2022 | Chronicles, Israel, Israel's Independence Day, Leadership, Miracles
It was 1948. World War II had just ended, and the United States was the most powerful and influential nation on earth. After saving Europe from the Nazis and crippling Japan with two nuclear bombs, the fate of humanity rested largely in the hands of this great...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 2, 2022 | Counting the Omer, Emor, Shavuot (Pentecost)
Shavuot is an annual Jewish holiday, one of the three Biblically mandated pilgrimage festivals when, in Temple times, Jews ascended to Jerusalem. It is observed after the Jews complete a seven-week count beginning on the second day of Passover: You must count until...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 2, 2022 | Revelation and Prophecy, Shavuot (Pentecost)
On June 15, 1967, Rabbi Norman Lamm delivered a lecture at The Jewish Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was the second day of the festival of Shavuot and five days after the Six-Day war had ended. In his passionate speech, the rabbi compared the Israeli...
