G-d’s clear indirect message
By Rabbi Avi Billet
Issue of Oct. 3, 2008
For the parsha with the fewest number of verses in the Torah, Vayelech is quite busy. (Nitzavim has 10 more …
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10/1/08
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Good old-fashioned pessimism? Not exactly.
By Rabbi Avi Billet
Issue of Sept. 26, 2008
Devarim 30:1 states: “And it will be when all these things come upon you, namely the blessing …
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9/25/08
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Heads we win, tails we lose
By Rabbi Avi Billet
Issue of Sept. 19, 2008
When my oldest child began to talk, she was two months shy of her second birthday. It occurred to me that I could …
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9/17/08
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By Matis Friedman
Issue of Sept. 12, 2008
Recently I picked up some new suits from being checked for Shatnez (wool and linen interwoven) and came away with quite a story.
When dropping …
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9/11/08
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Not being ‘cross’
By Rabbi Avi Billet
Issue of Sept. 12, 2008
Chapter 22 has a unique list of seemingly random commandments:
You may not forego returning a lost object you come …
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9/11/08
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Loving the ‘ger’
By Rabbi Avi Billet
Issue of August 22, 2008
The Torah commands us to love three entities: G-d, our neighbor, and the “ger.” The term “ger” is usually …
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8/21/08
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Enjoy, enjoy!
By Rabbi Avi Billet
Issue of August 15, 2008
The Talmud (Taanit 30b) quotes the Mishnah when it says there were no holidays (literally "good days") on the Jewish calendar …
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8/13/08
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
Issue of August 8, 2008
This optimistic/pessimistic outlook is an embodiment of what Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik would call a “dialectic.” Tisha B’Av is the …
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8/7/08
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Tzlafchad’s daughters
In memory of Aharon Hakohen, who loved everyone and pursued peace between people, whose yahrzeit is this Shabbos, the first day of Av.
By Rabbi Avi Billet
Issue …
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7/30/08
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Shabbos meals- no children allowed...?
By Rabbi Avi Billet
The best thing about Shabbos, a friend of mine says, is that it guarantees him two or three meals a week with his family. He can …
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7/23/08
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