PARSHAS SHELACH 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Shelach –Avos Perek 3 Mevorchim Chodesh Tamuz 25 Sivan 5778/June 8, 2018 During the Scripps National Spelling Bee last week, 13-year-old Shiva Yeshlur from Wyoming was asked to spell the word “Cholent”. Yeshlur requested a definition from the judges. The reply: “A Jewish Sabbath-day dish of […]
PARSHAS BEHA’ALOSCHA 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Beha’aloscha –Avos Perek 2 18 Sivan 5778/June 1, 2018 Shlomo Hamelech stated: “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of celebration, and the living will give heart” (Koheles 7:2) Although Simchos are beautiful and uplifting, most of the […]
PARSHAS NASO 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Naso –Avos Perek 1 11 Sivan 5778/May 15, 2018 My parents were born and bred on New York’s legendary Lower East Side. It’s where my grandparents lived when they came to America as well. For the first seven years of my life, my family lived at 550 […]
PARSHAS BAMIDBAR 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Bamidbar –Avos Perek Kinyan Torah 4 Sivan 5778/May 8, 2018 (48th day of the Omer) Erev Shavuos On Thursday nights, the Staums have “Shaarei Torah carpool”. Our son Shalom is in ninth grade in Yeshiva Shaarei Torah, and we have the pickup following maariv at 8:45 […]
PARSHAS BEHAR-BECHUKOSAI 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Behar-Bechukosai –Avos Perek 5 26 Iyar 5778/May 1, 2018 (41st day of the Omer) Mevorchim Chodesh Sivan – Shabbos Chazak! Last week, I was at Citi Field in Queens on two different occasions. On Sunday, I attended the Orthodox Union’s “Day of Torah Learning” held in […]
PARSHAS EMOR 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Emor –Avos Perek 4 19 Iyar 5778/May 4, 2018 (34th day of the Omer) During the last couple of weeks our Kehilla celebrated and mourned what epitomizes the circle of life. On the seventh day of Pesach, Mr. Seymour Kerner, father of our esteemed friend Rabbi […]
PARSHAS ACHAREI MOS-KEDOSHIM
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Acharei- Kedoshim –Avos Perek 3 12 Iyar 5778/April 27, 2018 For those of us living on the East Coast, it’s been a long and harsh winter. Ironically, this was the first time in a few years that we had relatively pleasant fifty-degree weather on Purim. Being […]
PARSHAS TAZRIA-METZORA 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Tazria-Metzora –Avos Perek 2 5 Iyar 5778/April 20, 2018 When I was a kid (wow, I’ve reached that age…), before Pesach I would bring home a nice Pesach booklet that contained many Divrei Torah. Today, each of our children brings home a complete professional-looking Haggadah, which include […]
PARSHAS SHEMINI 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Shemini – Mevorchim Chodesh Iyar – Avos Perek 1 28 Nissan 5778/April 13, 2018 One of the responsibilities of the leaders of any institution is to fundraise. It’s usually regarded as the most dreaded and arduous part of the job. Yeshiva administrators and Roshei Yeshiva are […]
Acharon Shel Pesach 5778
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)” Erev Shvi’i Shel Pesach – Erev Shabbos Kodesh/Acharon Shel Pesach 20 Nissan 5778/April 5, 2018 In my youth, before I owned any seforim I loved siddurim and machzorim, and was always excited by new ones. This was especially true as Artscroll published its machzorim. [Today, we can hardly remember what […]