Why We Need to Know that Yoav was Buried in the Desert Have you ever paid attention to how one thing leads to another, which leads to another, and so on, and before you know it, you’ve ended- up somewhere seemingly unrelated to where you began? If you’ve ever actually focused on this phenomenon, it’s…
A Practical Strategy to Survive the Darkness Let’s be honest. No matter who we are or what we do, the war is taking its toll on us, sucking away our vitality. Many of us are sad or depressed. Grief, despair, worry, and sleepless nights are all on the rise. We are either directly suffering from…
The Abduction of Dinah and Swords of Iron “We should have carpet-bombed the whole place immediately after the massacres took place on Simchat Torah (October 7, 2023). We could even have used bunker buster bombs and wiped them out once and for all! We had the whole world on our side then. What an opportunity!…
How One Man’s Sin Led to the Death of 36 Soldiers We are living through the greatest time of trouble experienced by Yaakov in over 75 years (and in certain respects, the most dangerous time that we have ever experienced on a global level), as it is written (Yirmeyahu 30:7): הוֹי כִּי גָדוֹל הַיּוֹם הַהוּא…
The Essence of Kedushah and Swords of Iron In the past few articles, we explained the fundamental distinction between good and bad and the importance of having emunah. We also learned that we have the power to create angels by learning Torah, observing mitzvot and doing acts of kindness. These angels are our allies. They…
Sichot ha-Ran 89 and Swords of Iron In last week’s article entitled Men May be Created Equal, but Angels are Not, we expounded upon two major teachings contained in our holy Torah. The first teaching was from Pirkei Avot 4:11 which states that anyone who does a mitzvah acquires for himself an angelic advocate or…
Likutei Moharan 20 and Swords of Iron After Yaakov Avinu left Lavan, he went, as the expression goes, from the frying pan into the fire. His destiny was to come face to face with his brother Esav. Knowing that this was his destiny, he sent messengers to Esav (Bereshit 32:4): וַיִּשְׁלַח יַעֲקֹב מַלְאָכִים לְפָנָיו אֶל־עֵשָׂו…
Following in the Footsteps of R’ Akiva and Nachman Ish Gamzu In our last article entitled Rabbi Akiva’s Night in the Field which we published just prior to the start of the Festival of Succot, we learned how to face life, build and live by true emunah even in the midst of difficult or even…
It has become a popular saying, often attributed to Mark Twain (although there is no known source that he ever said it) that, ‘If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed, but if you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.’ If true, we would seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place, in…
It is taught in Kabbalah that Hashem has three hands: יָד הַגְּדוֹלָה [yad ha-gedolah, the great hand], יָד הַחֲזָקָה [yad ha-chazakah, the strong hand], and יַד הָרָמָה [yad ha-ramah, the exalted hand]. What are these hands? They are spiritual lights, i.e. the sefirot in the upper world of Atzilut. Yad ha-gedolah corresponds to chesed on…
A couple of weeks ago, we were having a conversation at the Shabbat table that centered on the question, If you had the opportunity to go back in time to when you were 18 years old and live your life over again, but with the advantage that you would be able to retain all of…
The time was early February 1981. The location was the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. President Ronald Reagan asked William Casey, the newly-appointed Director of the CIA, what he considered was his primary role as head of that agency. Barbara Honegger, assistant to the…