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 Shaps | Dec 1, 2023 | Israel, Rabbi Zischa Shaps, Weekly Parsha
Rationally, it is hard to understand why the world cares so much about what is happening in Israel. There are bigger conflicts in other parts of the world, but everyone is obsessed with Israel. One tiny little country surround by Arab countries hundreds of times as...
