Sukkot II 5784
Sukkot II תשפ"ד The Sukkot holiday is blessed with two mitzvot: the mitzvah to dwell in the sukkah for seven days, and the mitzvah to take the four species – the lulav, etrog, hadas (myrtle), and aravah (brook willow).…
Embrace the Dirt
Succos 5784
I like to travel with an entourage. It is not fitting for a man of my stature to be traveling alone, I need at least a few million followers wherever I go. The good news is that I usually get…
Sukkos 5784
Sukkot תשפ"ד 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…
Can I be Real with You?
Ha’azinu/Succos 5783
In October of 2018 a new store opened in the Santa Monica Place mall, the kind of shopping center where you can find a lot of Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and Tiffany & Co, and not a lot of Old…
Sukkot 5781
Sukkot תשפא 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…
Palaces Made of Light…
Sukkot 5781
For most people, the rule of thumb is to stick to what you’re good at. But there are those rare individuals who can’t seem to stick to anything and are good at everything. Joseph Paxton was one of those people,…
Do You Have a Security Blanket?
Parshat Ha’azinu/Sukkot 5780
The end of 1918 and the beginning of 1919 was a pretty good time for most of the world. For four years, the Great War had ravaged the European continent, leading to the death of close to twenty million people,…