The Vilna Gaon My current love-affair with the Vilna Gaon’s Biur Hagerah is one of my most exciting Torah learning experiences ever. The Vilna Gaon, or Gerah as he is known, is an 18th century colossus towering over all of modern Torah scholarship. His personality synthesized piety and intellect, Halacha and Kabalah, Torah wisdom and general knowledge, and modernity of thought with unwavering adherence tomesorah (tradition). He stripped the halachik canon of any questionable practices not grounded in the Talmud and probed every law in the Shulchan Aruch for its Talmudic ess..

  Dear Friend I do not use the word "Friend" trivially. I feel so close to you even though in many cases our contact is merely digital. For some time now you have been reading and learning some of my innermost thoughts and ideas; this brings people closer. I feel comfortable sharing them with you in ways that friends share thoughts and ideas. I have also had some two-way communication with many of you and that has been very meaningful to me. Often without knowing it, you stimulate my thinking and facilitate new ideas as I imagine you on the receiving end of a shiur or essay. Thank..

  Breishit: 22   The Akeidah The torah reading on Rosh Hashanah includes the perplexing story of Akeidat Yitzchak, the near sacrifice of Yitzchak. The Midrash [1]links that event to the Teshuva process (apart from the fact that chronologically it occurred on Rosh Hashanah). Avraham says to Hashem: at first you told me “Your seed will be named after Yiotzchak”. Later you said “take your only son and sacrifice him”. Yet I did not question You. Instead I set aside my feelings of mercy for my son to do Your will. In the same way when Yitzchak’s children come to do..

A year draws to a close so that a new one can open another chapter in the journey of our lives. Rosh Hashanah marks the passage of time not only in a personal micro sense but also in a universal macro sense. Eras come and go, and with them trends and movements. We need to notice the passage of our own journeys of growth, and we should also note civilization’s journey and its evolution. We are witnessing a strange awakening in the world: an awakening to spirituality, and to the need to be concerned with, and protective of, the environment; an awakening to the role of values, purpose and me..

The term New Year is a misnomer. Years are not renewed; they are repeated. Only months are renewed. The Hebrew word for year, shanah, means "repeated". The word for month, chodesh, means "new." Every month has different holidays, they occur in different seasons. The feel and look of each month is different from the others and Rosh Chodesh is symbolized by the reappearance of a "new" moon that was not visible the day before. Each year on the other hand, resembles the ones before it. Every year contains the same holidays and includes the same seasons. There is nothi..

The art of listening Isn't it irritating when you're talking to someone and you know they're not listening, or at least that they are just not getting what you're saying? It's sometimes hard to appreciate that life is a constant ongoing conversation between G-d and us. It is not just that we speak to him in our tefillos (prayer) and he speaks to us in our limud Torah (study of the Torah). He speaks to us in an ongoing conversation; sometimes in a whisper sometimes in a loud and amplified voice. No matter the volume, most of the time we are hard of hearing. We miss the ..

When Poskim (Halachik authorities) have a safek (doubt) about the correct interpretation of a law, there are various formulas by which to resolve it. It is unusual that the Poskim decide to accept all possible interpretations requiring us to practice the law in all of its permutations. Yet in determining the required sounds from the shofar, this is precisely what they have done. The Torah makes reference to Rosh Hashannah as a Yom Teruah.Teruah is clearly the musical sound produced by a wind instrument. Elsewhere when the Torah talks of the sounds to be blown..

So many of us, certainly I, want to change... so badly. We plan to change. We commit to change. But often we just don't. Then there are others who do not feel any compelling reason to change. They are stuck in complacency... or perhaps, in perfection! Rosh Hashanah is the time for transformation and new beginnings. But what forces can we draw on to power that change? Discomfort is potentially the most powerful propellant of change. No one likes to feel uncomfortable and when we do, we generally try to change the situation that causes it.  Sometimes discomfort is caused by external fo..