by Rabbi Altonaga | Mar 7, 2024 | Rabbi Michael Altonaga, Shabbos, Vayakel, Weekly Parsha
If you found out on Sunday that Monday was actually a stat holiday, would you be disappointed in the extra time off? If you were waiting in a long line to get into an amusement park, would you be sad if the manager came out and had you skip the line so you could get...
by Rabbi Shaps | Feb 29, 2024 | Ki Sisa, Rabbi Zischa Shaps, Weekly Parsha
Nothing stays the same forever. Dynasties come and go, fortunes come and go. Economies go up and down and so do interest rates. How do we protect ourselves from the changes and ensure that we will have what we need? This week’s Parsha, Ki Sisa, starts with...
by Rabbi Gotlib | Feb 22, 2024 | Tetzaveh, Weekly Parsha
Parshat Tetzaveh contains a fascinating collection of mitzvot related to the bigdei kehuna the clothes that the kohanim, priests, wore. But what exactly is this mitzvah all about? Rav Binyamim Tabory analyzes several different positions on this throughout the Jewish...
by Rabbi Altonaga | Feb 9, 2024 | Mishpatim, Rabbi Michael Altonaga, Weekly Parsha
It’s the year 1950. You board a train in the frigid Russian winter headed to an important meeting you have in Poland. One of your gloves falls off your hand to the tracks below. You could get off the train to get your glove, missing the meeting and...
by Rabbi Shaps | Feb 1, 2024 | Honouring Parents, Weekly Parsha, Yisro
This Dvar Torah is dedicated to my mother Pearl Shaps – Pesel Bas Chaim Yehuda, who passed away last week at the age of 95. She died in her own home, the same one we grew up in, insisting that she did not want to move and that she did not want an aide. It is...
by Rabbi Gotlib | Jan 25, 2024 | Beshalach, Rabbi Gotlib, Weekly Parsha
Picture this: The Jewish people have just gotten out of Egypt. On one side of them is the Sea of Reeds while on the other side is the Egyptians, dead-set on returning the Jews to their slavery. Caught between a rock and a hard place, it seems as if all hope is lost....
by Rabbi Altonaga | Jan 12, 2024 | Rabbi Michael Altonaga, Vayera, Weekly Parsha
Seven of the plagues in Egypt happen in this weeks Torah portion, and you have to imagine that the Egyptians are pretty used to the pattern by plague seven. Every month, Moshe would request that Pharaoh let the Jews go, then Pharaoh would say “no,” then another...
by Rabbi Shaps | Jan 5, 2024 | Rabbi Zischa Shaps, Shemos, Weekly Parsha
What defines someone as “Great”? In the Torah world we refer to a leader as a Gadol. Someone who is great. The word Gadol has a number of meanings. We use it to mean large or big. We use it to mean great and we also use it to refer to an adult as opposed to a child....
by Rabbi Altonaga | Dec 15, 2023 | Chanukah, Mikeitz, Rabbi Michael Altonaga
When times are dark, why does it feel like no light ever existed? Depression seems to blot out all glimmers of happiness and makes you feel like that is all that ever was or will be. In our Torah portion Pharoh tells Joseph of his ominous dream: Then Pharaoh...
by Rabbi Gotlib | Dec 7, 2023 | Chanukah, Rabbi Gotlib
In his book Likutei Halachot, Rabbi Nosson of Breslav relates the Hebrew word Chanukah (rededication) to the word chinuch (education). In fact, he teaches that the essence of the holiday of Chanukah, remembering the Maccabean victory over the Greeks and their...
