Rabbi's Thoughts

Dear Friends:

As summer if in full swing, we are reminded that not all is right in the state of the Jewish People.  Today we usher in the "Bein Ha-Metzarim" – the three-week period sandwiched "between the tragedies," between the penetration of the walls of Yerushalayim on the 17th of Tamuz and the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash on the 9th of Av.  The subdued...Read more...

Dear Friends,

We are now in the period between the partial redemption of Purim and the fuller redemption of Pesach.  Of course, even Pesach is an incomplete redemption.  We open the seder narrative of our being freed from slavery by declaring that we in fact are still slaves to this very day - hashata avdei.  We end the narrative with a bittersweet four-word...Read more...

(בְּכָל־דְּרָכֶ֥יךָ דָעֵ֑הוּ וְ֝ה֗וּא יְיַשֵּׁ֥ר אֹֽרְחֹתֶֽיךָ (משלי ג:ו
In all your paths know Him, and He shall guide your ways (Proverbs, 3:6).

My translation of ve-hu yiyasher orchotecha, as "He shall direct your ways," emphatically employs the archaic spelling, "ways," over its modern spelling, "Waze." It is my tongue-in-cheek answer...Read more...