Jewish Holidays

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

The focus of the two poles of the teshuva process is very different.

Self scrutiny and the national will

The Joy of Yom Kippur

Do I Contradict Myself?

Having identified what is unique about ourselves, we can plot our direction for the coming year. And with that vision for the future comes a renewed sense of purpose, a feeling of attachment to the Source of all life.

Our task in life is not only to develop ourselves as individuals, but to join ourselves to G-d through the performance of His commandments, which He gave us for our benefit.

The task of Rosh Hashanah is to ascertain the nature of our unique mission.

Breaking bad habits

Two Thoughts for Rosh Hashana

The judgment of Rosh Hashana focuses on each individual and his personal achievements as well as contribution to the community

The rare opportunity of teshuva

The true meaning of awe during the holidays shown through the World Trade Center disaster

Love of our fellow Jews and the judgment of Rosh Hashanah

The key to a successful judgement on Rosh Hashana is identification with the community of Jews

Our opportunity to attain forgiveness only happens if we recognize G-d

Personal confession regarding this column

Rosh Hashana begins the most intense period of the Jewish calendar. The day is one of fear and trembling. At least we hope it is. Because without that fear and trembling, there can be none of the joy of the New Year either.

It is a joy to know you can change

Succot

This year we have unmistakably experienced God's enveloping protection, not just from our enemies but from the failures of our leaders.

The question we have to ask ourselves is: How did we imagine that it would be possible to ape the worst of Western hedonism and decadence in Eretz Yisroel and that nevertheless the IDF would be able to protect us from all threats?

Finally, it is important to ascertain the ways, if any, in which the market was distorted this year. Were false rumors circulated, were Israeli customs officials manipulated in ways that allowed certain suppliers to gain an unfair advantage, etc.?

Will there be lulavim?

Zman Simchaseinu

Succot--the time of our rejoicing

This Sukkot we are unified by our common despair

A response to a Reform slogan in light of the holiday

True joy is the result of giving and seeing the divine spark in others

Rejoicing leads to unity based on teaching of Rav Dessler

Chanukah

Greek science and the science of the Torah

Without a sense of what we are fighting for, Israelis will not endure another 50 years of war

Throughout history many Jews have forced Jews to abandon Torah

Tu B'Shvat

Being G-d's chosen people means nothing less than being his partner in the creation of heaven and earth

Man's potential for growth

Purim

The first result of the destruction of Israel would contradict the divine promise of the Jewish people's central role in the fulfillment of God's plan for the world; the second result contradicts the promise that Torah will never be forgotten.

If Lapid wants to look for other culprits, he might try the mirror. One thing that Israeli Jews and American Jews share is a declining sense of themselves as Jews. Lapid epitomizes that flight from our Jewish past.

In reality, Purim belongs to a future time, to the morrow, the time of our final reckoning with Amalek and our victory over both the Four Kingdoms and the Seven Nations

Making fun of the scoffers

A new approach to kiruv

By declaring the word "Jew" to be incapable of definition, the Court effectively removed the nationality line from the identity card.

We need unity to fullfill G-d's mission

Scoffing at Amalek

Pesach

My pre-Pesach column "Five-Star Pesach" generated, as expected, a larger than usual number of responses. The issue is a hot-button one for many.

When we gather in our homes around the festively decorated Pesach table, with the special dishes used just one week a year, and contemplate the freshly scrubbed homes over which we have labored, we link ourselves to all the generations of our ancestors.

Matza, writes the Maharal, is the symbol of our freedom precisely because it is spiritual bread; it consists only of its absolute essentials: flour and water.

If for no other reason than to help prepare our sons for the next stage of their lives, we owe it to them to make sure that they make themselves available for a few hours of helping with Pesach cleaning. Not for our good but for theirs.

Of all the many failures to be laid at the door of the Israeli educational system, the most serious, and that with the greatest implications for Israel's future, is the creation of a generation of Jewish youngsters indifferent to their nation's past.

For a Jew, any conversation that does not contain within it the possibility of dramatically altering one’s course in life is not serious.

Bein Hazemanim is a time for a different type of growth than can be achieved in the yeshiva

How to understand freedom

By cloaking ourselves in G-d's garb (tzedakah), we link ourselves to G-d, and make ourselves worthy of redemption.

The message of the Seder is that children are the agents of change

Pure joy

Comparison of matza and mitzvot -- both need alacrity and zeal

The Maharal on Pesach symbols

The significance of Matza and its parallels to the Jewish people

Comparison of Yale Law School and yeshiva

Shavuot

An Irrefutable Proof

Shavuos is only about the acceptance of Torah. For those Israeli Jews for whom Torah has long since ceased to be relevant, the holiday offers nothing.

Were Sharon's vision of a million non-Jewish immigrants to be realized, Israel would become a land of strangers, sharing no common history, to Diaspora Jews.

The syncretic spirituality of New Age celebrations has nothing to do with Shavuot

Nullification of one's ego is the pre-requisite for accepting Torah

By denying a revelation, the Conservative movement removes the need to keep any halacha

Too many mitzvot?

The Three Weeks and Tisha B'Av

Any Jew today who worries only about the insular community in which he lives and does not mourn the hemorrhaging of the Jewish people to assimilation and intermarriage is not be numbered among the seekers of Zion or the builders of the Bais HaMikdash.

So I don't expect many of those who view From the Ashes this Tisha B'Av to fully grasp the metaphor, to break down sobbing the way the secular Israeli broke down at Auschwitz. But maybe we can at least shed a tear over our own deadness,.

Until we can cry for our enstrangement from what we once possessed and are now lacking, we cannot regain it

A look at Israel and the Jewish people today shows that mourning on Tisha b'Av is by no means unnecessary.

People sustain themselves by cataloguing others' failures instead of achieving on their own

Attack on Ismar Schorsch

Reform's position on the destruction of the Temple and the significance of the Western Wall

Elul

Time to Think about Ourselves

Our author finds how hard it is to transfer the fear and care shown jumping from rock to rock on a hike to the spiritual realm.

The Jewish response to tragedy