When a person you love is taken from this world, you find yourself standing at the edge of something you never wanted to face — the sharp border between what was and what will never be again. In those first moments, nothing feels conceptual or philosophical. It is raw, it is disorienting, and it feels impossibly final. But Chazal teach us that to understand what happens on the day a soul leaves this world, we must lift our eyes from the surface and look deeper — beyond the pa

It is incredibly difficult to write a blog about the festival of Sukkot  and Hoshana Rabbah , simply because I find myself overwhelmed by the sheer depth of ideas surrounding this chag. Sukkot is a wellspring of meaning — from the mitzvah of ישיבה בסוכה , to the joy of ושמחת בחגך , to the fact that it is the time when נידונין על המים  — we are judged for rain (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah  1:2). Our sages teach that the mitzvah of Sukkot and this judgment comes בזכות אברהם אבינו , i

Disclaimer One As always, I write these blogs first and foremost to myself. They are not meant, chas v’shalom , as direction or...

The Lottery of Nations and the Lottery of Israel: Aleinu on Rosh Hashana Introduction – A Neglected Prayer at the Center of the Year For...

From Ki Tavo to Today The Tochacha and Its Aftermath In this week’s parsha, Ki Tavo , we read the terrifying litany curses — the tochacha...