Archive: February 2023

What’s in a Name?

by Rabbi Eliezer Lawrence
Posted on February 9, 2023

The Mechilta teaches that Yitro, Moshe’s father in law, had seven names: Yeter, Yitro, Chovav, Reuel, Chever, Putiel, and Keni, each corresponding to an aspect of Yitro’s entirety. Yeter, because he was always adding good deeds. Chovav and Reuel, because he was beloved and a friend of God.…

Who’s Fighting in YOUR corner?

by Rabbi Joel Dinin
Posted on December 8, 2022

In this week’s parsha, Vayishlach, Yaakov is scared, afraid. He is vulnerable. He is running from his brother Esav, even though he is the one who brought this situation on himself. Yaakov has sent his family away, not sure that he is ever going to see them again.…

Truth and Oneness

by Raffi Levi
Posted on December 1, 2022

Is it possible that Truth is different in different settings? Or is Truth always only one thing? (Or, can both of these be true?) The Rabbis say “elu v’elu divrei Elokim chaim”—that these and those are the words of a living God.…

Ma Tovu: Sanctity and Sacredness in our Communal Spaces

by Rabbi Yonah Berman
Posted on July 14, 2022

I recently traveled to Poland with a group of students from our Yeshiva. Our main goals were to help members of the Polish Jewish community prepare for Passover and to provide assistance to Ukrainian refugees, Jewish and non Jewish, as they crossed the border, fleeing the Russian invasion of their country.…

Absence of Fire

by Rabbi Ezra Seligsohn
Posted on February 24, 2022

Shabbat shalom. I wanted to talk with you this week about fire. In the beginning of this week’s parsha, Moshe gathers the people and teaches them about Shabbat. “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day, you shall rest” (Ex.…

pretty and cute cottage with a white picket fence in the mid-fall as golden leaves are falling on the trees behind the house and on the lawn in front of the house

Our House Is a Very, Very Fine House

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on November 11, 2021

Yaakov is the first person in the Torah who articulates the idea of a house of God. “This is nothing other,” he says upon waking up, “than the house of God and this is the gate to heaven” (Gen. 28:17). The Rabbis point out the power of that concept of a house of God and its association with Yaakov.…