On the Shabbat of the UAlbany December Graduation Weekend, we set up the center tables at Shabbos House in the shape of a huge number fourteen, in honor of these final graduates of the Class of 2014. These students have … Read the rest

Grant’s Mom: As some of you know, my husband and I both went to UAlbany in the early 1980’s, he founded the RZA group while I was President of Hillel. We met here and got married 3 years after our … Read the rest

Today (November 9th 2014) marks the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It actually took some time longer, but this is the day that the first part of the wall began to symbolically come down. … Read the rest

Everyone knows G-d’s first words to Abraham: “Lech Lecha! Go unto you, from your homeland, your birthplace and father’s home, to the land that I will show you.” This charge began the destiny of the Jewish people and our earliest … Read the rest

So by now most of you realized that tonight’s unusual table set-up and colored tablecloths reflect the property groups on a Monopoly board. A Monopoly Shabbat! Why a monopoly board? It ties into two things from this week’s Torah portion … Read the rest

Enroute to Egypt to find food when famine hit Israel (then Cannan) Abraham turns to Sarah and says: “Hey, I just realized how beautiful you are! The Egyptians might kill me to take you for a wife!” And so they … Read the rest

There’s a common expression: “Whatever floats your boat.”

I thought of it this week because we read in the Torah the story of Noah’s Ark. Everyone knows the story of Noah’s Ark, it’s one of those very well-known Bible stories.… Read the rest

There’s a Chassidic teaching from the Baal Shem Tov (see it here on Chabad.org) that on the morning after Simchat Torah the angel Michoel and his helpers clean up the synagogue and they collect torn parts of shoes … Read the rest

I’ve since expanded on this inspiration from Reb Levik’s Niggun in an article on Chabad.org. See it here. 

Below is the original post on ShabbosHouse.org:

This year marks 70 years since the passing of the Rebbe’s father, Reb Levi Yitzchak … Read the rest