The Freudian Slip The story of the Megillah, always on the edge of tragedy, is nevertheless peppered with poignant moments of hysterical comedy. The bulk of the comedy however is found in the pages of Talmudic and Midrashic material. This material gives even more life to the fairly brief recounting of the story as told in the Megillah itself. One such moment occurs when Queen Esther has set the stage for her dramatic revelation of Haman’s complicity in the plot to exterminate her and her nation. Both her husband the King and Haman have arrived at her dinner party. The King is in a joyf..

Shemot, 35:2   The Way we Celebrate Shabbat In our lonely, too busy and alienated world, socially vibrant Shabbatot often attract people to religious observance. However, the way we observe Shabbat has sidetracked us far from the intention of the Architect of Shabbat and the Artist of its majestic beauty. Our Shabbatot are often glorious days of social networking, entertaining, sumptuous kidushes and meals (with sometimes exotic and over-abundant drinking). Many Shuls are full on Shabbat not because of the charisma of the rabbi, the wisdom of his derashot nor for the..

Fear and Faith are Feelings Fear is an intuition; it is a feeling, an emotion. Fear is not the product of data or intellectual process. So, when someone feels afraid, it is not helpful to tell them not to worry, that there is nothing to fear. The way to counter fear is with Faith. Faith is also an intuition, it is also an emotion [1]: faith in yourself, faith in your G-d. Like Fear, you will not experience Faith through the mastery of data or of intellectual process. You access faith through intuitive feeling, not through rational proof. The feeling of fear in the pits of our stom..

Vayikra, 1:2 Serving G-d or serving Man?  Often we confuse G-d’s will, Halachah, with the will of the communities in which we live. Religious fashion and style become confused with fundamental Halachik requirement. We do things because they are expected of us. But, expected by whom? Expected by Hashem, by Chazal or Poskim (authentic Rabbinic authority); or expected by a group of self-appointed religious bullies? Do we know enough to know the difference? Are we learning how to discern the differences between Halachah, religious fashion, and religious bullying? It ..

  Questioning The Torah embraces questioning. Like a teacher secure in his brilliance, the Torah becomes even more vital by questioning. As long as we encourage questioning the Torah will never become mindless dogma or intimidating fundamentalism. Questioning guards the truth, sharpens the mind, and invigorates our thinking.  We teach our children at our Pesach sedarim to question and challenge. Talmudic methodology is built on question and challenge. No question seems to be out of bounds. Torat Emmet (the Torah of Truth) can withstand any questioning; ..

New Age Spirituality and Reb Elya's Mussar  "Happiness is not about how much you have, but about how little you miss." Mindful Observance of Mitzvot Would you daven three times a day (assuming you are a man) if there were no chiyuv (obligation) or reward for davening? Whichmitzvot would you continue to keep consistently if they were voluntary and there was no reward for doing them nor negative consequence for not keeping them? Think about it carefully and consider asking your children too. I recently put this question to a group of bne..

Vayikra 25:20-21 The boundary between nature and miracle is a creation of your own mind. You can open channels of miraculous possibility by removing that imaginary boundary.  Is this the teaching of some new age Guru? Not at all: this lesson is taught by the Sefat Emet[1] on our Parsha. Every seventh year, in Israel, the Shemitta is observed. The land is not worked that year and the farmers use the time as a Sabbatical during which to reconnect to Hashem, study the Torah and grow spiritually. The year after the seventh Shemitta is a Yoveil&n..

Communication Communication is the heart and soul of all relationships. It is the foundation of education. It is the oil that makes nations and organizations work smoothly. Whether or not we are good at communication depends on how we define it. If communication is the transmission of information, most of us are quite good at it. But is that what communication is? We learned so much about communication at the Seder. The very word "haggada" means communication. It originates in Shemot…..vehigadeta levinchah (you shall tell your son) introducing an explanation for the Seder without ..