This week’s portion begins with Sarah’s passing at age 127. The Torah reports that her years were all equally righteous and that Sarah lived a perfect life. Now it became Avraham’s responsibility to bury her in an appropriate place. It…
Pet peeves. We all have them, and we can’t really explain why we have them. They are the little things that could go unnoticed by most people, but seem to be particularly outsized grievances to us. People who walk slowly…
This week’s Parsha ends with Avraham’s last and most difficult test: the binding of Yitzchak, the Akeida. Hashem told Avraham (Genesis 22:2): ב) וַיֹּאמֶר קַח נָא אֶת בִּנְךָ אֶת יְחִידְךָ אֲשֶׁר אָהַבְתָּ אֶת יִצְחָק וְלֶךְ לְךָ אֶל אֶרֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּה וְהַעֲלֵהוּ…
There’s a dial somewhere, that spans the continuum from None to Enough. It describes how much people work out, and 99.9% of the populations gets dialed in somewhere in the middle. But there are select individuals who break the dial…
This week’s portion introduces us to our Forefather Avraham. Maimonides (Laws of Idol Worship 1:3) tells us of Avraham’s beginning and his greatness. ג) כיון שנגמל איתן זה התחיל לשוטט בדעתו והוא קטן והתחיל לחשוב ביום ובלילה והיה תמיה…
When I think of jellyfish, I think of the bright colorful gummy candies I used to eat as a kid. But when I think of swimming in the ocean, I think of the living jellyfish. As a matter of fact,…
In this week’s portion, Noach, we learn about the first two of the three famous “generations” spoken about by our Sages. They are (1) theדור המבול - the “Generation of the Flood,” and (2) the דור הפלגה, the - “Generation…
As we progress through the Jewish calendar year, we enter different time zones. As we reach each new time zone, our Sages have given us a tool to take note of the fact that Hashem has granted us the gift…
The Tur (written by R. Jacob ben Asher 1269-1343) notes in the name of his brother that the three festivals, Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, correspond to our three forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov: Passover corresponds to Avraham because the angels…
Encounters | Mrs. Shaindel Fink