Rabbi’s Blog | Adath Israel

Embracing Judaism ~ a course for Jews and non-Jews

Always been curious about Judaism? Never paid attention in Hebrew school? Thinking about (or is someone you love thinking about) officially joining the Tribe? The Embracing Judaism program is geared towards both Jews and non-Jews who want to learn more. Bring your...

A story for Bereshit, chapter 3, the expulsion

The last three gifts When God sent Adam and Chava from the garden, God gave them three gifts. The first one, as you probably know, was clothes. The Torah text says: And the LORD God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. (3:21) It took them a...

A last story for Sukkot

The Etrog by S. Y. Agnon, adapted [By clicking on the links you will see the original story by Agnon and other interesting things] If you want to know how precious the mitzvah of Etrog is to the Jewish people you just need to go to Meah Shearim before Sukkot. That...

A story for Sukkot I

This is a story about a Rebbe who became famous, but he didn’t really want the fame. He was fine being a complete unknown disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. His name was Reb Pinchas of Koretz. All that Reb Pinchas ever wanted to do was to study, pray and meditate – alone....

Sukkot ~ Let’s have a little fun ~ 1

This is a poem of all the laws of Sukkot, Dr. Seuss style! If you have any doubts, check the footnotes. Click here to download a pdf:  rules-of-the-sukkah-printable 1. Maimonides (RaMBaM) Mishne Torah, Hilchot Sukkah, Chapter 4, Section 1. The minimum height of a...

Don’t tame the Leopard

Main idea: teshuvah is a dual process, looking inward and outward; getting rid of the things we detest Franz Kafka has a two-sentence short story. It goes like this: “One day, a leopard stalked into the synagogue, roaring and lashing its tail. Three weeks later, it...