This period of time is dark, literally and figuratively. Daylight hours are short. The weather is cold. It’s easy to get sick. Lethargy sets in. There are no holidays. The financial crisis is raging. Israel is at war. What’s a Jew to do? There’s a surefire way to illuminate ourselves and the world around us, to fortify our “good energy” levels, and dispel the darkness: perform mitzvot. Yeah, I know that sounds simplistic, but it’s actually incredibly deep. You see, each mitzvah contains within it tremendous spiritual energy and power to affect us and our surroundings. When we perform...
Free Choice
One of the most powerful questions that arises from the story of the Exodus is how could God harden Pharaoh’s heart without stripping him of his free will to decide between good and evil? I’d like to convey two answers offered by one of the greatest Torah scholars of the early twentieth century, Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin ZT”L, in his classic “La-torah V’La-Moadim”. 1) We are all born with innate characteristics, or Middot. It is up to us to decide how to apply them. For example, someone who is born with a tendency toward spilling blood, can choose to...
Limited Space – Reflections on Kaddish
An excerpt from Goodbye, Mom: A Memoir of Prayer, Jewish Mourning and Healing by Arnie Singer The rabbi of the shul I’ve been saying kaddish at recently handed me a card with someone’s hebrew name on it, and asked if I would have them in mind when I said kaddish on their upcoming Yahrzeit. I felt sorry that the departed soul had no one to recite kaddish on its behalf, but I returned the card to the rabbi. I simply don’t have the space in my mind to think about anyone’s soul other than my mother’s. The kaddish that...
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