Giving is receiving The almost paradoxical relationship between the accounting terms "credit" and "debit', are universal truths core to human relationship. A credit exists on your balance sheet when you have created indebtedness in another. You create indebtedness by giving another person something of your own. When you receive something from another, you create a debit in your books, not a credit. If a person owes you more than you originally gave them, then value has been created. (In banking terms this would occur when the interest on a debt exceeds the cost of mitigating the..

It is so important that slavery to routine does not exclude us from life-changing experiences that do not fit into our routines. Pesach entails both routine (Seder) and discontinuity. We create a new Seder for the occasion rather than force occasions into our own robotic routines. We do not become slaves to routine; rather we use Seder, (routine, order, structure) to serve our Freedom. Routine is a tool for completion. Not a structure for dominance and control.   I will not be sending out a Tzav Parsha Insight this week, due to pre-Pesach pressures and my travel commitments. ..

When we are too quick to ease our discomfort, we may miss out on "hearing" potentially life-changing messages. If we accept that nothing is coincidental, (the very definition of Bitachon,) then discomfort is sent to us not just as an irritation but to urge us to make some life-style modification. When we suffer a headache, rather than just popping another pill we may do better evaluating our lifestyles and sources of stress. If we suffer from heartburn we could either take antacid medication and carry life on as normal, or examine our eating habits and make permanent changes to our d..

It’s so odd! Betzalel’s task was to construct the Mishkan with meticulous faithfulness to its Divine design.[1] I understand the need for him to be a talented multi-medium craftsman, which he was. But why was it also necessary for him to be so ultra-creative that he was able to conceive of ideas and designs that had never before been seen?[2] I’ll answer that question at the end of this essay. New parents whose hearts are overflowing with the desire that their newborn will grow into an authentic Oveid Hashem (Servant of G-d), are granted an almost prophetic insight whe..

  The charge of nepotism Almost every year for Parshat Korach I try to understand anew, the underlying core issue of the Machloket (divisive argument). It is not that I am dissatisfied with my earlier interpretations. Rather, I believe part of the purpose of interpreting any Torah, but especially Parsha, is not to just to reach deeper textual understanding, but also to gain insight into very current and contemporary issues. So, when we look at Parsha, we are inevitably looking at it from the angle of our own experiences in the present. That is the meaning of&nb..

You pray but G-d doesn’t hear – or, if He does hear He doesn’t answer?  Nonsense! He hears and He answers, it is YOU who don’t hear!  There is an art to hearing Hashem’s voice, and in this Insight I’ll show you how.  It is not about prophecy.  It is about being in touch, understanding His ‘language’, and removing the clatter of our own egoistic noise so that we can hear the very still sound of His voice.  How do you do this?  The answer is embedded in the first word of the Parsha, the name not only of the Parsha but of the third ..

The word "Tisah" implies elevation and upliftment. A prince is called a Nasi. But it also implies "to carry". Even the very idea of ‘lifting someone up’ in English also has two meanings: Toraise someone would mean to lift him up high as a sign of honor as we often do to a Chattan and Kallah at their wedding. To carrysomeone implies that they are disabled and unable to carry themselves. One can be a Nasi, a major contributor to society, or one can be a Masui, nothing but a burden to society and a consumer of its resources. The word Yisah (s..

Bamidbar 19 Writing and teaching while I am traveling poses the challenge of discovering new insights with very limited resources by way ofsefarim. That’s not a bad thing: it makes me realize how dependent we are on the giants of Torah, both to stimulate our own thought processes and to verify them. When we don’t have access to the array of sefarim normally available (and I still haven’t got used to using the internet as a substitute,) we are left to our own resources. We are compelled to go deep inside ourselves to verify the truth of a thought or insight. I for one, certainly ..