You guys know me. In the spirit of Chassidic teaching and perspective I like to view holiness within the lens of life, always seeking integration and synthesis, connection is key, finding G-dliness within the everyday and ordinary.  So it’s a … Read the rest

The big local news this Friday was about a herd of buffalo (technically “American Bison”) who escaped their farm in Castleton NY, swam across the Hudson River, ran across the NYS Thruway, and rampaged through woods and residential areas, before … Read the rest

Many Cholents nowadays are cooked in Crockpots. Now “Crockpot” is actually a brand name (of the Sunbeam company I think) of slow cooker, similar to Kleenex for tissue and Xerox for copy. So whatever you call the brand, Cholent is … Read the rest

In connection with Holocaust Remembrance this week, I had opportunity to see a telling and moving documentary titled “Fifty Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus”. This little known story is an important one. See more about the … Read the rest

We asked for a show of hands when we sharing this Horton insight this on the 8th night of Passover, and most students either read the book “Horton Hears a Who” or saw the movie. Some especially enthusiastic students either … Read the rest

The Medrash says that when the Jews at the Exodus were confronted at the Sea with the Egyptians at their heels, they split up into 4 opinions:

1. Give up and go back to Egypt.
2. Fight the Egyptians and win our

The 7th of Passover is the annual anniversary of the Splitting of the Sea, that dramatic climax of the Exodus. This is the one of the most famous miracles of all time, and one of the greatest images of the … Read the rest

This crisply handwritten “Chametz on Passover Prayer” from Bergen Belsen Passover 1944 was on display at the Ghetto Fighters Museum in Tel-Aviv.

It was written or at least dictated by Rabbi Aharon Bernard Davids, leader of the Dutch community of … Read the rest

My grandfather Reb Moshe Rubin liked to tell this story at the second Seder or on the second day of Passover:

Reb Shmuel of Karov was a poor but pious Chassid of the Chozeh of Lublin. One year, as Passover … Read the rest

At the second Seder 5775 (2015), after we ate the Matzah, Raizy’s father Rabbi Shlomo Galperin shared this memory of the Passovers of his youth in Tashkent Russia:

My grandmother Bubbe Reiza didn’t exercise her authority much, but when she … Read the rest