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Purim Insights from Hamantaschen

This began as a series or thread of tweets, so we may add some more ideas as we celebrate Purim – and eat more Hamantaschen…

#Hamantaschen may just be a #Purim cookie treat, but perhaps a #Hamantasch has more in … Read the rest

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Nick Foles and… Queen Esther?

One of the big stories of Superbowl LII is the contrast of the two quarterbacks in the biggest game of 2018: Tom Brady for the Patriots and Nick Foles for the Eagles.

Tom Brady is one of the best QB’s … Read the rest

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Dror Yikra by Dunash, a closer look

In honor of Shabbos Shira, thought it would be nice to take a closer look at one of the Shabbos songs that many of our Shabbos Lunch’ers know.

The words or lyrics to Dror Yikra go back 1000+ years, just … Read the rest

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Sons and Daughters of…

Thanksgiving 2008. That Thanksgiving we were glued to the computer for days, watching online the grueling days of the unfolding saga of the terror attacks in Mumbai India, which culminated in a vicious attack on the Chabad House, known as … Read the rest

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Inspiration from Last Cozy Shabbat of Winter 5778

This Winter 5778 (2017-2018) we were home hosting Cozy Shabbat only 2 of the 5 weekends. On the first weekend of break we were away in Michigan for a family Bar-Mitzvah road trip, another weekend we spent visiting alumni on Read the rest

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A Collection of Warmth

With all the cold raging outside, we thought it appropriate to share a collection of stories and inspiration about “internal” warmth.

First a few links from past “mendels messages” posts:

1) Surrounded by Barrels – this short Russian story is … Read the rest

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Lessons from Driving a Hybrid Car

New Years 2018 was our first opportunity to drive a hybrid car, a Ford Fusion Hybrid to be exact. As the Baal Shem Tov taught, and as we are wont to do, here are two life-lessons we learned from our … Read the rest

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Tea and Tehillim

We did a whole Torah-Tuesday class on this, all based on this saying from Zeide Moshe Rubin:

He used to say: Tea and Tehillim are always good, but they have to be hot!

Let me explain. In the old-times, no … Read the rest

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Two Chassidic Stories of Chanukah in the Forest

One day this Chanukah 2017 I shared two Chanukah stories with my 7th graders at the Maimonides School in Albany. They asked, “Hey, both these stories are about Chanukah in the forest, deep in the woods. How come?” I started … Read the rest

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The Test Menorah

In the spirit of our “Final-ly Chanukah” theme for Chanukah – Finals Week at UAlbany in 2017, we lit a large “Test-Menorah” made up of 4 types of Chanukah Tests. While they may be harder to read on the circular … Read the rest

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