Fighting Fear with a Story of Hope: Harnessing the Power of Words in an Age of Terror We learned on Monday of the horrific terror attack in Jerusalem, with 6 people killed. Unfortunately, the news cycle has moved on to other things and maybe we too have done the same. We’ve been dealing with terror […]
Messages from 2025
Lift Someone — And Be Lifted Yourself There are two mitzvos that at first glance seem simple but, upon reflection, reveal something profound. The first involves a person seeing a lost animal wandering, the second is when a person sees a large animal that has fallen on the road. In both cases we are told […]
When responsibility saves lives: Oiri and the lesson of Eglah ArufahEver since October 7th, Israel has been flooded with stories of courage and selflessness. Some of these stories lift our spirits because lives were saved, while others break our hearts because the hero did not survive. Ori Danino was one of those heroes. He was […]
Writing in Stone, Not in Pencil There is something striking about this week’s parsha, Re’eh. Moses begins by addressing the lofty destiny of the Jewish people — their choices, their covenant, their future in the Land of Israel. Then, almost abruptly, the Torah interrupts Moshe’s subject and shifts to something seemingly unrelated: the festivals. Shabbos, Passover, […]
The Praying Thief: Faith or Self-Deception? Imagine someone involved in financial fraud and actually asking G-d for help in the enterprise. It seems illogical but the person tells himself, “I support important charitable causes and with this endeavor I will be able to donate a wing to a hospital in Israel. Please, G-d, allow me […]
The Jew You Are, Not Just the Jew You Do When we think of mitzvos, we often picture actions: lighting like lighting Shabbos candles, eating matzah, sitting in a Sukkah or praying, each of which is a concrete behavior with a beginning and end. You do them and then you move on. But there are mitzvos that are […]
The Faithful City Became a Killer’s Den: How the Holy Became Hollow [I want to acknowledge and thank Rabbi Dovid Katz, PhD, Professor of Jewish History at Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland, for directing me to the sources mentioned in this Dvar Torah]Every year, the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av is called Shabbos Chazon—the Shabbat of Vision—named […]
What and Whom Are You Letting In? In this week’s Parsha, the Jewish people stand at the edge of a new chapter. They’re about to enter the Land of Israel after 40 years of wandering in the desert. Just before G-d commands them to go in, He gives them a very specific warning:You will drive […]
From Routine to Radiance: When Small Acts Become Sacred This week’s parsha introduces the laws of inheritance—because of five remarkable women: the daughters of Tzelafchad. Here’s the claim they presented to Moshe: “Our father died in the desert. He was not among Korach’s faction, who protested against G-d, but died because of his own sin. […]
:Lessons from a 90-Year-Old Skydiver and Parshas Balak This week in Salisbury, North Carolina, a 90-year-old man did something extraordinary: he jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet. But that wasn’t even the most daring part—Ray Schehr later admitted he hadn’t told his wife he was going skydiving. Let’s pause for a moment and admire this […]
Look Up and Wake Up: The Snake, the Soul, and the Gaze That Heals In one of the more surprising episodes in the Torah, G-d instructs Moses to craft a copper snake and place it on a pole. When the Jewish people, suffering from deadly snake bites after complaining about the manna, looked at it—they […]
Hold On to Your Staff: Hold On to Your Dreams Life happens; we get busy, tired, distracted—and many times discouraged. Dreams that we once felt were in our reach slowly fade until, sometimes, we forget we ever had it at all. But in Jewish consciousness there’s a surprising lesson this week about holding on to […]
Israel at War—And the Inner War We Must Win First וַנְּהִ֤י בְעֵינֵ֙ינוּ֙ כַּֽחֲגָבִ֔ים וְכֵ֥ן הָיִ֖ינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶֽם and we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we appeared in their eyes. (Num. 13:33) Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t believing in G-d—it’s believing in ourselves. That’s exactly what went wrong in one of the darkest moments of […]
Because You Matter: What Leviim Teach Us About Community In the 1920s, an electric company called Hawthorne Works in Illinois ran a series of experiments to see how they could help their workers be more productive. First, they tried changing the lighting in the factory—and productivity went up. But after the experiment ended, the improvements […]
You’re Not a Failure — You’re in the Middle of Becoming You In this week’s parsha, the Jewish people complete the Mishkan — a sacred, beautiful space they carried with them through the desert to connect with G-d. But here’s something surprising: for seven days, Moses built the Mishkan each morning — and then took […]
How a Snack Made History: Boaz, Ruth, and the Original Viral Moment In 2007, an employee of a New Jersey Dunkin Donuts named Dustin Hoffmann (not that one) made news when the store was nearly robbed by a serial robber who jumped on the counter grabbing the cash out of the cashiers’ register. The twenty-something Hoffmann fought […]
Breakdown to Breakthrough: Finding Purpose in the PainOver the past few years, psychologists have been exploring how people respond to crisis — whether it’s a personal loss, a war, or a global challenge. One study from 2023, published in the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology — interestingly from Israel, just months before the war — found […]
Qatar’s Cyber trucks and the Menorah’s Flame: A Lesson in Authenticity This week was a major moment on the world stage. One of the Israeli hostages, Edan Alexander, was finally released. But while that should have been cause for unity, something strange happened: Israel wasn’t even involved in the negotiations. President Trump traveled to Qatar, a […]
Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Acharei Mot-Kedoshim (Leviticus 16-20)Empathy Without Order: Judaism’s Response to Animal Rights ExtremesIn 2003, a terrorist attack in Israel was narrowly averted. A donkey, strapped with explosives, was sent toward an Israeli bus. Thankfully, the bomb went off too early — no human lives were lost, only the donkey was killed. Shortly afterward, PETA […]
The $41 Million Wakeup Call: What Shedeur Sanders and the Torah Teach About U-Turns Sometimes, the most powerful lessons about life don’t come from a holy book or a spiritual teacher—they come from unexpected places—like a football field or a skin condition described in an ancient Torah portion. At first glance, these two stories […]
A New Pair of Glasses There is a non-kosher bird mentioned in the Torah called the Ra’ah. Scholars are not certain exactly which bird it is; many think it’s a buzzard or vulture. It is called Ra’ah (literally to see) because it can see very far and can spot a carcass from an incredible distance. Rav Meir Shapiro (1887-1933) […]
The Sea Didn’t Just Drown the Egyptians, it Drowned Their Power Over Our MindsImmediately after the Jews walked through the Red Sea, they reacted in a peculiar way. And on that day, G-d saved Israel from the hand of Egypt, and Israel saw Egypt dead on the seashore. (Exodus 14:30)But wait a second—weren’t the Israelites already […]
Kintsugi Judaism: Honoring the Breaks, Celebrating the Repair This morning, I ran into a friend who is a collector of fine art. He mentioned his interest in Kintsugi, the Japanese art of reassembling broken ceramic vessels and sealing the cracks with gold. Two central ideas emerge from this: don’t discard something just because it’s broken, […]
The Call Your Didn’t ExpectIf you’ve ever looked closely at a Torah scroll, even if you can’t read Hebrew, you’ll notice that every letter is carefully written—but, in this week’s Parsha, something surprising jumps out; the last letter of the first word is an aleph, but it’s written smaller than all the other letters. Why?The small […]
From Dunkin to Divine: What We Really Make“And they brought the Mishkan to Moses…”After the construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was complete, the people brought all its components to Moses. He then stood up the walls and erected the structure. But there’s a striking Midrash, quoted by Rashi, that raises a question: The materials were too […]
The Women Who Carried Us This week’s parsha introduces what is arguably the first recorded fundraising campaign in Jewish history: Moses said to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel: This is the word that G-d has commanded, saying: Take from yourselves a portion for G-d… everyone whose heart motivates him shall bring it… (Ex. […]
Purim 5785-2025 A Sister Who Wouldn’t One of the puzzling aspects of the Purim story is Esther’s decision to invite Haman—the arch-enemy of the Jews—to a banquet with King Achashverosh. Ostensibly, she did this to plead with the king to rescind the decree against the Jews, but why invite the very person responsible for their […]
When Flaws Become Features”You shall place both stones on the shoulder straps of the ephod, remembrancestones for the Children of Israel.” (Exodus 28:12)Moses was commanded to make special garments for the Kohen Gadol—the High Priest. Among these was a garment resembling an apron, called the ephod. On its shoulder straps were two precious stones engraved with the names […]
The Gift You Were Born to Give Anyone with familiarity with Jewish communities knows that capital campaigns are par for the course. The first Jewish fund-raising drive in history is when Moses asks the people to contribute to the Tabernacle, the portable synagogue accompanying the Jews throughout the desert and even when they first entered […]
Consider the Possibility that You Are a ThiefAnd these are the ordinances that you will place before them. (ibid. 21:1)A sizeable quantity of this week’s Torah portion deals with the laws of theft and damage. What significance is there in giving these laws immediately after the Ten Commandments and revelation at Sinai (last week’s Torah portion)? Here’s […]