By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz I am always amazed that there seems to be a specific Psalm for every occasion and situation. David must have been in constant dialogue with God. This reminds me of the character of Tevye in the musical Fiddler on...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz My first visit to Israel was in 1978 when I was seventeen years old. As a teen on his first trip away from home, I was cynical and more interested in adventure than in any serious endeavors. I certainly had no...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz I have been blessed with four amazing children and, as they grow, one story keeps recurring. When they are five years old the setting is the playground, and playmates that are their best friends one moment turn...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz “Abba (Father)!” My little boy came running into the house, tears streaming down his cheeks. “We were playing hide and seek,” he sobbed. “And after he was found Samuel yelled out to everyone where I was hiding.”...
By Rabbi Tuly Weisz In Psalm 39, David writes that he generally guards his mouth and refrains from questioning God, no matter what troubles befall him. But at some point, staying silent becomes too difficult to bear and he feels compelled...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Hanukkah is quickly approaching and I am reminded of a joke my father, of blessed memory, used to tell every year after lighting the candles. With the doughnuts and potato pancakes arranged on the table and...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz When I was learning Hebrew, there was a young man in my class who spent more time listening to Israeli street slang than the teacher. One day, while we were relaxing outside, he strolled over with a smug look on...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz King David was a complicated person. Perhaps the most perplexing part of his life was his dual identities as a musician and as a warrior. David went from playing his harp to soothe King Saul, to having run from...
By Rabbi Avi Baumol Throughout our lives, either for reasons we create, or for reasons unbeknownst to us, we experience tragedies, feel pain and suffer. Why? This Jobian question disturbs us throughout our period of distress, and...
Many people believe that Judaism is not ‘Messianic’, and that observant Jews are only concerned about performing commandments. But one of the commandments, as enumerated by Maimonides, is to anticipate that the Messiah will arrive at any...