In trying to become a holier person, one can go astray despite donning the garments, behaviors, and thoughts of holiness. 

The Lubavitcher Rebbe had a beautiful teaching about this…

During the early days of Hasidism, just as now, many “sophisticated” Jews turned away from the tradition of their ancestors in order to pursue a life based on secular values.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov responded with a story…

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz was asked, “Do you believe in soulmates?” 

He said, “It’s quite true that God decides before we’re born who the right spouse is for us, but it is not necessarily true that God decides such a couple will be happy.”

After a person reads Torah for the benefit of the congregation, we say to them, “Yasher Koach!”

Time For A Change

My son’s 7th birthday is coming up and he wants a punching bag so he can practice tae kwon do at home. I studied the art myself for years, so I know what he needs, and it’s not an inflatable, wobbling piece of dreck that ends up punctured in a week. He’s got a solid roundhouse. He needs a good bag, with a heavy base, that will survive thousands of punches and kicks.

R’ Yehoshua ben Chananyah said: Once I was walking down the road and I saw a little boy sitting by a fork in the road, and I asked him, “Which is the road we take to the town?” He answered me, “This road is short and long, and this one is long and short.”

Master of the Universe, please help our enemies see with their eyes and understand with their heartsbefore it is too late.

Learning About God

Rabbi Levi taught: when the Holy One ordered Noah to include two of every kind aboard the ark, Falsehood tried to enter.

“Truth does not become more true because the whole world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.”

Right now, the good people of the world are scared. We find ourselves targeted by a savage death cult, and wonder when the next attack will occur.