It is freezing outside, quite literally. It has been freezing outside, quite literally, since a week ago. The coldest we’ve seen in the last week has been 5 degrees Farenheit, and the balmiest has been just below the freezing point.…
Parshat Bo תשפד The Jews are finally out of Egypt. By killing every first born, Hashem delivered the knockout punch to Pharaoh who could not get rid of them fast enough. This chapter in Jewish history, the slavery and…
Bo תשפג A Confirmation for the Oral Torah The commandment to wear tefillin is written four times in the Torah. Indeed, each paragraph of the Torah containing that command constitutes the “script” that a scribe writes on parchment, which he then…
About two months into the pandemic I started making herring. The chocolate chip cookies made me do it. I was giving classes all the time, to people who were isolated, and often sad and fearful. On a regular basis I…
Parshat Bo תשפב On Rosh Hashanah this year, the Jewish calendar year changed from 5781 to 5782 (Rosh Hashanah means the “head of the year” or the beginning of the new year.) This number represents the years that have passed since…
Hello Everybody, The events below are true, as reported by the New York Times. (Some people would find that line an oxymoron.) What do you do? Uncle Virg is dead. And just one day before his Social Security check is…
Parshat Bo תשפא This week’s portion, בא – Bo, describes Hashem’s last three plagues brought on the Egyptians and the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. The tenth plague, מכת בכורות, the killing of the first born, was the straw that broke…
When we think of the earliest explorers of our fledgling country, we tend to think of rugged adventurers of the Daniel Boone genre, people who would kill a bear with their bare hands and then eat its raw flesh for…