PARSHAS BEREISHIS 5777
STAM TORAH PARSHAS BEREISHIS 5777 “HOLD ON” Rabbi Emanuel Feldman relates the story about a Jewish adolescent who was raised by his irreligious parents in the assimilated life of the city. One summer his parents sent him to live with his Orthodox grandparents in the suburbs. Throughout the summer his Bubby and Zaydei instilled […]
SUCCOS 5777
STAM TORAH SUCCOS 5777 “BELIEVE IT[1]” He was world-renown as one of the most successful and wealthy individuals in the country, and his fame seemed to grow as quickly as his profits. He was the envy of his acquaintances, the bane of his competition. So when the accusations were leveled against him it was an […]
PARSHAS HA’AZINU 5777
STAM TORAH PARSHAS HA’AZINU 5777 “HEAR HERE” Rav Elimlech Biderman shlita repeated a story that someone related to him[1]: “One Rosh Hashanah I was hospitalized and someone was blowing the shofar in my hospital room. There was a non-religious Jew in the bed next to me who was intrigued by the shofar. He asked us […]
YOM KIPPUR 5777
STAM TORAH YOM KIPPUR 5777 “ON THE MARK” The Dubner Maggid[1] was legendary for his uncanny ability to answer virtually any question with an engaging and apropos parable The Vilna Gaon[2] once asked the Maggid the secret of his skill to imagine innovative parables on the spur of the moment. True to his legacy, the […]
PARSHAS VAYELECH – SHABBOS SHUVA 5777
STAM TORAH PARSHAS VAYELECH – SHABBOS SHUVA 5777 “FACING WHICH DIRECTION” [1]“There was a wonderful Jew I knew named Reb Moshe Chaim Berkowitz z’l, who passed away on Succos 1997. He was a Holocaust survivor and as an incredible ba’al tzedakah.[2] His brother, Reb Elya Berkowitz, is 92 years old ka’h and lives in Monroe, […]
PARSHAS NETZOVIM 5776
STAM TORAH PARSHAS NETZOVIM 5776 “FACING WHICH DIRECTION” Rabbi Elya Meir Bloch zt’l, the Telsher Rosh Yeshiva, was once in the Chicago train station with a few of his students, waiting to board the Pacemaker to New York. A few feet away stood the Sunshine Express to San Francisco. Rabbi Bloch asked his students, “How […]
PARSHAS KI SAVO 5776
STAM TORAH PARSHAS KI SAVO 5776 “EVERLASTING JOY[1]” Rabbi Noach Weinberg zt’l would often relate that what he felt was the key to everlasting happiness could be understood from the following story: “Imagine someone is standing on the ledge of the seventieth floor of the Empire State Building in New York, perching to jump. “You […]
PARSHAS KI SEITZEI 5776
STAM TORAH PARSHAS KI SEITZEI 5776 “ELEVATING LIFE” One day during the summer of 2011/5771, our family visited Quiet Valley Historical Farm in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. It is a historic farm preserved exactly as it was in the early 1800s after a German Lutheran family settled it in the late 1700s. The tour was especially meaningful […]
PARSHAS SHOFTIM 5776
Rabbi Dani Staum STAM TORAH PARSHAS SHOFTIM 5776 “RIGHT OR LEFT” I have heard the following story related by Rabbi Mordechai Finkelman on a number of occasions[1]: There was a fifty-year-old man whose health had been becoming progressively worse for a few years. His eyesight was blurred, and his hands and legs became less and […]
PARSHAS RE’EH 5776
Rabbi Dani Staum STAM TORAH PARSHAS RE’EH 5776 “WITH WARMTH AND LOVE” The peace of a Friday night in Jerusalem was shattered by an eruption of shouting and angry voices. Rabbi Rafael Grossman, the rabbi of a synagogue in Tennessee, peered out his hotel room window and saw a religious Jew blocking a taxi from […]