One of the more destructive qualities of any leader, teacher, mentor is being hypocritical. Anyone who looks up to someone else can easily be disenfranchised when they catch the person they admire …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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2/14/18
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A story is told of a man who stopped attending his usual synagogue and was now frequenting another minyan. One day he happened to meet the rabbi of his previous synagogue, and the rabbi asked him …
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By Rabbi Marc D. Angel
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2/14/18
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The mishpatim are most often viewed as a category of laws the Jewish people theoretically could have formulated on their own. In many instances, Torah contrasts these with the term chukim, as we find …
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By Rabbi David Etengoff
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2/7/18
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According to the Sefer HaChinukh, there are 53 mitzvot in Parshat Mishpatim. Other than in similarly mitzvah-laden parshas (such as Re’eh, Shoftim, Ki Tetze, and possibly Kedoshim) it is hard …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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2/7/18
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I had an aunt who was a kindergarten teacher for many years. She once told me about a child who would bite other children. No amount of persuasion seemed to work. Then one day, when he was caught …
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By Rabbi Binny Freedman
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2/7/18
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This week’s parsha begins by telling us that Yisro heard what G-d had done for Israel in taking them out of Egypt: So “Yisro, father-in-law of Moshe, took Zipporah, wife of Moshe, after …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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1/31/18
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A prevalent custom in Ashkenazic shuls is for the congregation to stand when the Ten Commandments are read from the Torah. This is a symbolic re-enactment of the Revelation at Mount Sinai, when the …
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By Rabbi Marc D. Angel
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1/31/18
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The first 12 pasukim of our parasha, Yitro, relate the story of Yitro’s departure from Midian in order to join Moshe and the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. The Torah initially gives Yitro three …
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By Rabbi David Etengoff
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1/31/18
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One of the outstanding sections of parsha Beshalach is the Shirat HaYam Suf, the song of joy and thanks to Hashem for having miraculously saved us from Pharaoh and his hordes of chariots and …
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By Rabbi David Etengoff
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1/24/18
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One of the saddest stories I ever heard was from a holocaust survivor who would say Kaddish on the tenth of Tevet every year, in the shul I grew up in as a boy. He was given the privilege of leading …
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By Rabbi Binny Freedman
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1/24/18
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