In addition to UAlbany’s 2019 Commencement falling on the minor biblical holiday of Pesach Sheini (see this post for 3 messages learned from that) it also falls a few days before another minor Jewish holiday called Lag B’Omer or Lag … Read the rest
It so happens that UAlbany’s 2019 main commencement graduation falls on the minor (but biblical) Jewish holiday called Pesach-Sheini, or the Second Passover. This has to be a pretty rare occurrence, considering how late the regular Passover fell this year, … Read the rest
It so happens that we scheduled “Shabbat in Tzfat” for Finals Week 2019 at UAlbany. As the Baal Shem Tov taught, there must be a connection and lesson…
Let’s start with Finals Week. Most of you are taking 4 or … Read the rest
This week, just after Passover, around the time when many remember the Holocaust, the Kaliver Rebbe passed away in Israel at age 96. He and his first wife were both concentration camp survivors. He had a very unique image for … Read the rest
One of the most beautiful new spaces in UAlbany’s Campus Center west wing expansion is called “The Multipurpose Room”. My daughter was intrigued by that generic name and asked, “Aren’t all the open spaces in Campus Center considered multipurpose? The … Read the rest
I was born in the former Soviet Union and raised there by my parents and grandparents. My family persisted in maintaining Jewish and Chabad Chassidic observance in private, despite the Communist attempt to stamp out religion … Read the rest
My father, Rabbi Yisroel Rubin, shared this memory of his youth in Montreal.
Reb Peretz Mochkin was the Mashpiya, the Chassidic mentor of the Chabad community of Montreal. He was a beloved, wise Chassid, steeped both in the richest Chassidic … Read the rest
The Rebbe has so many beautiful and inspiring communal and individual pre-Passover letters. This short, beautiful letter shares a Passover wish of freedom from anxiety.
Chametz (which includes all leavened products ranging from bread, cake and cookies to vodka, whiskey and beer) is a peculiar Torah prohibition. On one hand it is more lenient, being a limited restriction which … Read the rest
Like many other Jews, Israelis, and space enthusiasts all around the world, we have been enthusiastically following the journey of #Beresheet, Israel’s SpaceIL lunar lander’s space journey with excitement and anticipation. Our kids school has been learning along with it, … Read the rest
