pride

Vayikra – Understanding forgiveness

What is the concept of the atonement sacrifices? Why does the Torah seem to be so focused on sin? What is the concept of forgiveness? How can we look past the negative interactions in our relationships and forgive? How does one deal with pride? How can we forgive ourselves? Find out in this week’s Parsha…

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Shemos – Pride, self destruction, and redemption

Why is it necessary to ask Paroh to free the Jews? Why not just leave? Furthermore, why ask if he will just say no? Why is it that Paroh never heard of Hashem? Wasn’t he an expert in all the gods that existed? Why does Paroh punish the Jews by making them find their own…

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Sensing Kedusha – part two

In a previous post, I spoke about the idea of sensing the holiness of Eretz Yisrael, and quoted the story I heard about the Rizhiner. In it, the rebbe implied to his chossid that the lack of sensitivity to the holiness of Eretz Yisrael was due to a certain lack of spirituality akin to a…

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Moshiach, now? part II

You know, I don’t think there is anyone who will say that we aren’t in a very significant moment in history. As I have said in the past, I do not like to make predictions, and the main reason is because predictions for the near future look rather silly when they do not come true.…

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Emor – MUST LISTEN!!!

If there is one podcast you must choose to listen to, it must be this one. Explained here is an incredible paradigm shift that will sharpen your view of your own mind – the emotional and intellectual – and help you understand your internal struggles and the approach that will really work to deal with…

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Singing for real

I would like to share the following story that has happened on a number of occasions, with slight variations. There is something deep and human about this experience, as you will soon see. As you may know, Hashem sends me parnassah through music – I play and sing at weddings and other simchas. Quite often,…

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Obama, the economy, and the prelude to Moshiach

Why is the economic situation connected to Moshiach’s arrival? Why does it seem that the current mode of dealing with the problem will not yield bona fide results? I think that our hearts tell us that both of the aforementioned questions are valid. While this that we sense may be affected by what we’ve read…

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Bo – Water, blood and the Moon

What is the connection between the first plague’s blood, and the blood of the Pesach offering that protected the Jews from the last plague? Why was the first plague on the water of the Nile as well as the final downfall of the Egyptians via the water of the Yam Suf? Why was the mitzvah…

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Swallowing pride

Guest post by Daniel My ga’ava (pride) got the best of me today. I called my family to wish them mazal tov on their recent simcha. And the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “Why didn’t anyone call and tell me! I had to hear the news from a person who heard…

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The Moon and the war – part two

As I was reading the article mentioned in the previous post about the moon, I wondered what the significance is to the phenomenon that the tides and waves are caused by the moon’s gravity. What could the message behind this be? I was נתעורר to some interesting thoughts when I saw a piece from the…

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