Last Friday, I had a visitor. There was a knock on the door about 11:30AM, and when I answered the door, I saw a tall, thin, older gentlemen of Israeli Chassidic persuasion, with a kindly face, and a slightly haggard…
In Parshat Bechukotai, Hashem promises the Jewish people a list of eleven blessings comprising every possible benefit in the world: The rains will fall in their proper times The land will give its produce and the trees will yield their…
There are some millennial fads that are obvious to all; the proliferation of beards and handlebar mustaches, ubiquitous selfies and food pics, the rise of full sleeve tattoos, and being offended. But there hidden fads as well, the ones that…
The mitzvah to count the Omer (namely, to count the 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot) was in last week’s portion, Emor. These seven weeks of preparation lead us to the great day of Shavuot when we will receive the…
I was standing in my house a few days ago, reading something on my phone, when suddenly I noticed some motion to my right. In a graceful fluid motion, a spider was climbing down from my ceiling to the floor.…
This week’s portion Emor contains the five mitzvot relating to the קרבן העומר - the Omer Sacrifice. The first mitzvah is to bring an omer of barley (omer is the name of a unit measurement equal to, according…
What do you do when you know the world is about to end? Where do you go if you’re sure the world is going to experience an apocalyptic culmination in the very near future? If you’re any where near the…
The Talmud (Brachot 6a) reveals a stunning idea: אמר רבי אבין בר רב אדא אמר רבי יצחק: מנין שהקדוש ברוך הוא מניח תפילין? שנאמר נשבע ה' בימינו ובזרוע עוזו בימינו זו תורה שנאמר מימינו אש דת למו ובזרוע עזו אלו…
Dairy cows are prodigious producers. You pump about one hundred pounds of feed into a dairy cow over the course of a day; usually a mixture of hay, grain, soybean meal or some other protein, and silage, which is fermented…
In 1981, Project Kansas was hatched secretly in the boardroom of one of the most successful companies in the US. It was the desperate gambit of a company that was rapidly losing its footing, and it would set off a chain of…