Teshuva
Jonah: What a Storm Can Teach You About Repentance
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the day we spend fasting and praying for repentance, is always rough for me. Fasting means no coffee. Last year, I dragged myself out of bed and prepared myself to go to synagogue....
Is Fallible Man the Best Beneficiary of the Torah?
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz My teenage son came to me on the Sabbath with a real dilemma: “Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is impossible,” he said. I understood him and, to be honest, a large part of his dilemma came from listening to me. Yom...
Yes You Can!
By Shira Schechter Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg (1726-1778), an early Hasidic master and kabbalist in Poland, once told the following story (as recorded in Bar Mitzvah & Tefillin Secrets: The Mysteries Revealed by Rabbi Dovid Meisels):...
Judaism’s Secret for Time Travel
As a child, I was fascinated by science fiction. I remember sitting in front of a black and white television set when I was eight years old as I watched Neil Armstrong take his first “small step” onto the moon. I always knew that this...
Forget Your Past – For Now
By Elie Mischel Fifteen years ago, when I was working as a corporate attorney in New Jersey, I joined a volunteer program in which lawyers helped Holocaust survivors fill out incredibly long and detailed applications for Holocaust...
The Unlikely Connection Between a Captive Woman and the Hebrew Month of Elul
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Dani is a member of our small synagogue and every Shabbat, when we gather together after morning prayers, he jumps up and gives a speech on the weekly Torah portion. It isn’t nice to say, but his speeches drive...
The Month of Return
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Anticipation and preparation are two words I have always had difficulty with. In Yeshiva (Jewish school for Torah learning), my rabbi called me "do-ish." I have a tendency to jump right in and figure things out...
How the Rewards of Sin Bring Us Closer to God
Sin is horrible. It drives us away from God, pushing us into a reality that seems devoid of life, love, and hope. This state of despair envelopes the most precious aspects of our lives. Marriage, the source of our greatest joy, can become...
The Exile as a Sign of God’s Everlasting Love for Israel
There are two passages in the Torah that contain a short list of promised blessings should the Children of Israel adhere to the commandments, and a longer list of curses should they not. The first is found in Leviticus chapter 26 and the...
Are We Really Required to Give an Eye for an Eye?
Leviticus seems to tell the Children of Israel that when someone hurts his fellow he should be punished in kind. Understood literally, the verses seem to say that we must implement reciprocal justice; paying another back measure for...
