As a football fan growing up, though I don’t watch much now and have pretenses to having matured, I still find myself caught up in some of the sport’s drama. Take Tim Tebow, the celebrated college quarterback widely thought to be unfit to play professionally.
The guy is missing a bunch of core skills associated with [...]
This is the week that Avraham goes to bat for the not so nice people of Sodom and Gemorah.
“What if there are 50 righteous people in the midst of the city,” asks Avraham. ”Would you still wipe it out…Shall the judge of all the earth not do justice?”
Avraham is relentless in arguing the region’s merits [...]
G-d commands Avraham this week to leave his home and go on a great journey. To reassure him regarding the effects of such a trip, G-d promises to bless him with abundance in family, wealth, and accomplishment.
What happens? He arrives in Israel and is met with serious famine. To save his family’s life, he must [...]
Our portion begins, “The following are Noah’s offspring; Noah was a righteous man, pure in his generation. He walked with G-d. And Noah bore three sons…”
Rashi is bothered. If you’re going to introduce Noah’s offspring, don’t then interrupt with a character reference of Noah and only later name the kids; just get to it.
No, answers [...]
Israeli chemist Daniel Shechtman received the Nobel Prize this week for his discovery of quasi-crystals, research that has “fundamentally altered how chemists conceive of solid matter.” Quite an achievement.
When he first posed the theory, he was promptly ridiculed, kicked off his research team and the double Noble Laureate and senior chemist of the generation declared, [...]
I don’t want to give “consequences” to my kids this Shabbos.
In truth, I never want to. I always want to create an atmosphere that helps them enjoy themselves and their responsibilities. But this Shabbos is different: the kids are losing their mommy to host a women’s retreat onLong Island. G-d willing, 60-70 women will accomplish life-changing things. [...]
Fighter pilot/Major Heather Penney was ordered airborne September 11, 2001, to stop United 93 from attacking the US Capitol. The lack of time to load ammunition would require ramming the plane. At the time, her father was a United pilot regularly flying this route. Was she on her way to end her and her father’s [...]
My wife and others dear to me sometimes express frustration with my rigidity about certain things. A card game with my sons offered an unexpected window into my actions.
We wanted to play Uno, but could only find a regular deck of cards. So they assigned different Uno functions to regular card numbers: 10 would [...]
We’re four weeks from Rosh Hashana. Shofar blasts have begun. It’s time for renewal. But what to do about the nagging voice that accuses, “Can you really change? Can you keep it up?”
I became aware of those lurking thoughts when my wife pointed out this week a powerful antidote.
“Change can be slow,” she said, “and [...]
Our move from New York City to Passaic, NJ (still in progress), has yielded numerous adventures.
“Sara Leba (2.5) locked herself in her room,” my wife said as I walked in the door at 8am. ”What do we do?”
I looked for a key. None. I called owners of the home we’re staying in. No answer.
“Call Chaverim [...]
