We’ll tweet some of these as we approach Passover @shabboshouse, but the idea is to condense seder insights into concise twitter-like tidbits, each under 140 characters. 

from our TorahTuesday class before Passover 5775 / 2015 by Rabbi Mendel Rubin.
The … Read the rest

I’m going to share with you two things that maybe I shouldn’t share with college students. One is from the Medrash on the Golden Calf, the other is the Rebbe’s commentary on a classic piece of Zohar. I don’t want … Read the rest

THE BLANK PAPER

Today marks the 20th yartzeit of my grandfather Rabbi Yechiel Michel Piekarski. He passed away on Shushan Purim Kattan (that year was a Jewish leap year) in 5755 (1995) and now we’re at the day after Purim … Read the rest

Today marks the 20th yartzeit of my grandfather Rabbi Yechiel Michel Piekarski. He passed away on Shushan Purim Kattan (that year was a Jewish leap year) in 5755 (1995) and now we’re at the day after Purim in 5775 (2015). … Read the rest

Everyone knows “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” with the holes in the pages of the various foods the caterpillar eats, but there are many other Eric Carle books with his distinctive illustrations and kid-friendly text.

This week we went to the … Read the rest

Ben Z. an UAlbany and Shabbos House alumnus walked down to the Chuppah to the melody of “Oyfen Pripitchek” an old classic Yiddish song that at one time every Eastern European Jew knew well. The melody is beautiful, it is … Read the rest

“The Mirror” is a classic story in “The Call of the Shofar” by Chana Sharfstein, one of the earliest Kehot (or any publisher) Jewish children’s books. I read that story, that book, over and over as a child and it … Read the rest

This Shabbos is a special trifecta. (1) We read the weekly Torah portion of Mishpatim which deals with much civil law regarding damages and monetary matters, (2) we read the special reading of Shekalim about the half-Shekel coin contributed by … Read the rest

It’s actually a half-Niggun. See below for more on that. This Hoofbeats Niggun is about life journeys, frustration and fulfillment.

Years ago, in my early teens, my classmates would get together to learn Chassidic melodies with two of the parents … Read the rest

Last night at Twin-Shabbat I spoke about individual choice, each person empowered to be their own person, no one shackled by nature or nurture, even if sharing the womb with a twin, and all of life’s shared experiences – each twin … Read the rest