Parsha Hashavuah
Bring Your Shabbos Table Alive with Your Own Copy of ‘TableTalk’: Ha'azinu 5784/2023
Baltimore, MD – Sept. 2023 - Every Shabbos table offers every Jewish family an incredible opportunity by which they can share their joy for Shabbos, for Yiddi...
Parshas Ha'azinu/Shuvah/Yom Kippur - Critical Calculations
At the end of this week's parsha, Moshe is told to go to the mountain where he is to pass away. The pasuk states the reason(s) why he is dying here (32:51)...
Parshas Ha'azinu/Yom Kippur - Time for an Oil Change
I was talking to a friend of mine, and he told me he needed to get an oil change on his car. I thought about this and it occurred to me that during this auspici...
Rabbi Shmuel Silber - Parsha Perspectives: Yom Kippur (Haazinu)
We experience a flurry of emotions. On one hand, there is incredible excitement for the new year and new beginnings, yet we simultaneously experience feelings o...
Parshas Haazinu - Rise and Shine
This week we read the portion of the Torah that is referred to as שירת האזינו — the Song of Haazinu. Encapsulated within its verses is the full his...
Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion / Ten Days Of Teshuva: A Time For Miracles
Do you feel a unique energy in the air? Do you notice how every conversation ends with "Shana tova" or "Gmar Hatima Tova" -- May you be inscribed and sealed (in...
Perek Shirah
Parshas Ha’azinu, which is almost exclusively a song written by Moshe Rabbeinu, provides an opportunity to discuss a collection of pesukim and midrashim calle...
The Role and Obligations of Women in Hataras Nedarim
In Devarim,30:3 the Torah tells us that one should keep his word and not desecrate his vows. The Shach brings a remez fr...
More Than Just Kapparah
Day of Purification Though we generally associate Yom Kippur with atonement, the Torah defines taharah (purification) as the day’s goal: (כי ביום הז...
Rosh Hashana 5784 - No More Excuses!
We are poised to determine our fate in the ensuing year as we undergo judgment on Rosh Hashana once again. How fortunate we are to be standing before our Father...
The State of G-D in Our World - 2023
The State of G-D in Our World - 2023 Moshe Taragin "All of humanity pass before You as sheep.. ". On Rosh Hashanah, G-D reviews all human behavior, scrut...
Shehecheyanu
Reuven buys a new suit but will not wear it until he has it checked for shatnez. When does he make the bracha of Shehecheyanu; when he ...
Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion / Days Of Awe: A Bookseller Asks Forgiveness From His Customers
At the entrance to an Or Hachaim bookstore branch in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, I received a reminder of what the Days of Awe are all about. Moshe K...
Parshas Nitzavim-Vayelech - Taf Love
As the Torah wraps up the last of the 613 mitzvos, we are taught of the mitzvah of hakheil, which was performed on the Sukkos following a&nb...
Rabbi Shmuel Silber - Parsha Perspectives: Breaking Through the Shell (Nitzavim/Vayelech)
In one of his final addresses to the Jewish people, Moshe says: For this commandment which I command you this day, is not concealed from you, nor is it f...
How to Respond To Suffering
Expressing Our Faith The Mizmor Tehillim we recite each Shabbat declares the “goodness” of singing Hashem’s praises: “Tov lehodot laShem u’l’zamer ...
Parhsa Netzavim-Vayelech: A Heavenly Message
For this commandment which I command you today, is not concealed from you, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heav...
Bring Your Shabbos Table Alive with Your Own Copy of ‘TableTalk’: Nitzavim-Vayelech 5783/2022
Baltimore, MD – Sept. 2023 - Every Shabbos table offers every Jewish family an incredible opportunity by which they can share their joy for Shabbos, for Yiddi...
Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion / Dreaming big with Jews in the Persian Gulf
Last Friday afternoon I was at home in Jerusalem for a Zoom encounter. I had been invited to speak at a Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony of the Association of Gulf Jew...
Parshas Ki Savo -Fruits of the Promised Land
This week's parsha begins with the laws pertaining to the bringing of bikurim. The bringing of the bikurim is accompanied by a rec...
Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion / A Message for Elul from King David
Are you familiar with Psalm 27? It is customary to recite this psalm every day from the start of the month of Elul through the end of the holidays of Tish...
Parshas Ki Savo -The Danger of Rubbernecking
I was sitting in my office when my wife called to tell me that she was stuck in traffic. Why? Because there were a bunch of ducks crossing the road. I told her,...
Parshas Ki Savo - I Can, I Must
In Sefer Dvarim, we are treated to one of several places where Hashem uses a particular term of endearment for B’nei Yisroel, referring to us as the “Am Seg...
Parshas Ki Savo - We Have Nothing to Fear But G-d Alone!
Each year as we approach Rosh Hashana, during the next to last Shabbos of the year we read the portion of the Torah that enumerates ninety-curses that will befa...
Bring Your Shabbos Table Alive with Your Own Copy of ‘TableTalk’: Ki Savo 5783/2022
Baltimore, MD – Aug. 2023 - Every Shabbos table offers every Jewish family an incredible opportunity by which they can share their joy for Shabbos, for Yiddis...
Who's Up First?
In Devarim 31:9 we see that Moshe wrote the Torah and gave it to the Kohanim the sons of Levi. The Gemara in Gittin 71b ...
All For The Good
G-D Intends The Good Yosef Hatzaddik found himself in a terrible situation. Sold into slavery by his own brothers, he had every reason to feel wronged. Surpris...
Parshas Ki Seitzei - Marriage, Divorce, and the Unique Gematria of "Geit"
A Weekly Shtikle mazal tov to my nephew Nochum Aharon Shonek on his marriage last night to Chaviva Rosenfeld of Monsey, NY. Mazal Tov to the extended Shonek, Bu...
Parshas Ki Seitzei - Breaking Boundaries
Bnei Yisroel were given specific instructions on who is eligible and who may serve as a soldier in the conquest of Eretz Yisroel. Exemptions were given f...
Parshas Ki Seitzei - Don't Fight With, Fight For
According to an article on Forbes, called “The Importance of Having a Mission-Driven Company,” the author reveals how mission-driven workers are 54 percent ...
Rabbi Shmuel Silber - Parsha Perspectives: Waging the Ultimate Battle (Ki Seitzei)
“כי תצא למלחמה על אויביך” “When you go out to war against your enemy …” War – it is something we try our best to av...
Ki Seitzei - The King and I
One of the great rabbinic figures of pre-war Europe, who endured the tortures of the holocaust, yet survived to return to his hometown in Hungary after liberati...
Watch: Rabbi Yonah Sklare on Elul - From Self-Loathing to Personal Redemption (Video)
Rabbi Yonah Sklare is a Rosh Kollel in Baltimore, MD as well as Magid Shiur at Congregation Shomrei Emunah. His refreshingly creative approach to learning as we...
Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion / Chesed on wheels, from Canada to New York City
"Shalom Sivan, This is Linda from New York. I have read many of your stories on the special kindness of people in the Land of Israel. I wanted to send you somet...
Bring Your Shabbos Table Alive with Your Own Copy of ‘TableTalk’: Ki Seitzei 5783/2022
Baltimore, MD – Aug. 2023 - Every Shabbos table offers every Jewish family an incredible opportunity by which they can share their joy for Shabbos, for ...
Aryeh Gotlieb From Beit Hagai Severely Wounded In Shooting Attack Near Chevron
Aryeh Gotlieb, a 40-year-old father of six from the community of Beit Hagai in the Mount Hebron area, was severely wounded on Monday in a drive-by shooting...
When “Bad” Things Happen: How To View Suffering
Though we hope and pray for the best, suffering is part of life and can be hard to handle. In addition to dealing with the hardship, those suffering often strug...
Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion / Two thoughts to strengthen and inspire us from Rabbi Kook
What would Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook say about what is happening in Israel today? Rabbi Kook (1865-1935) was the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of M...
Parshas Shoftim - The King of Hearts
The Torah describes how the unintentional murderer must flee to a city of refuge "lest the redeemer of the blood chase after the killer, for יחם לבבו —...
Rabbi Shmuel Silber - Parsha Perspectives: Joyful Judgement (Shoftim)
You shall set up judges and law enforcement officials for yourself in all your cities that the Lord, your God, is giving you, for your tribes, and they shall ju...
Parshas Shoftim - The Untold Truth of Cotton Candy
In 1897, William Morrison together with confectioner John C. Wharton, created a machine that spun heated sugar through a screen, thus creating a floss-like text...
Parshas Shoftim - We Are SO Connected
There are numerous places in the Torah where Chazal derive significant lessons from the placement of one Mitvzah or historical event directly opposite or next t...
Bring Your Shabbos Table Alive with Your Own Copy of ‘TableTalk’: Shoftim 5783/2022
Baltimore, MD – Aug. 2023 - Every Shabbos table offers every Jewish family an incredible opportunity by which they can share their joy for Shabbos, for Yiddis...
Parshas Shoftim: Keeping it Simple
Simplicity is one of life’s great arts. As we strive for higher accomplishments and as our lives and relationships become more complex, we often abandon the o...
The Mystery of the Table and the Knife: Unveiling Minhagim in the Shadow of the Bais Hamikdash
In Devarim 27:5 the posuk says one should not raise a knife on the stones in the Bais Hamikdash. Shulchan Aruch&nbs...
Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion, Shoftim / No One Should Be Invisible
Have you ever thought about the hobby of the guy who cleans your street? Or his dreams? The city of Akko -- as reported by journalist Yair Kraus - has put up ne...
Sivan Rahav-Meir / The Daily Portion / Some Thoughts Concerning Shabbat
"Shabbat is not a problem, it's a solution." These words were spoken by Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, the Chief Rabbi of South Africa. Regarding Israel...
Parshas Re'ei - Beware the Unknown
This week's parsha contains a number of sections related to various types of avodah zarah. Nowadays, it is very difficult for us to comprehe...