PARSHAS KI SETZEI 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS KI SETZEI 5779 “SELFLESS TAKING”[1] The Latest Marriage Fad: Marrying Yourself[2] May 20, 2017 by Rabbi Benjamin Blech …Its name is sologamy – and it means getting married to yourself. In this sad, new trend of sologamy, people commit themselves to themselves with their own wedding ceremony. These celebrants, such as self-styled “sologamist” Erika […]
PARSHAS SHOFTIM 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS SHOFTIM 5779 “THE GREATEST GIFT” Noted psychologist, Dr. David Pelcovitz relates that his wife’s uncle was an American soldier in 1945 and was present when they liberated one of the Concentration Camps. When he walked into a children’s barrack, he was stunned by the sight of the frightened, emaciated children. He […]
PARSHAS RE’EH 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS RE’EH 5779 “THE GREATEST GIFT” This week, I went for a routine eye exam. The optometrist asked me the usual questions of “better now” or “still the same”, as he flipped the lenses while I was trying to decipher the letters on the wall. Then, as is the usual practice, he […]
PARSHAS EIKEV 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS EIKEV 5779 “MINDFUL BLESSING” The Chasam Sofer had a gabbai who would prepare his breakfast every morning – a coffee and a piece of cake. One morning the gabbai thought to himself that the Chasam Sofer anyway doesn’t pay much attention to the cake he is eating. He only eats […]
PARSHAS VAESCHANAN / NACHAMU 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS VAESCHANAN /NACHAMU 5779 “A WISE CHOICE” Question: As you know, my wife is a little behind me when it comes to religious observance. One thing she challenged me on and I didn’t have an answer. Last week I forgot to leave the light on in the bathroom before Shabbos. She wanted to turn it on, but I […]
PARSHAS DEVORIM/CHAZON 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS DEVORIM/CHAZON 5779 “INDIVIDUAL GREATNESS” The Ribnitzer Rebbe[1] was known as a pious and holy Jew. Stories abound of his extreme Avodas Hashem as well as the supernatural effects of his blessing. Today, hundreds visit his burial plot in Monsey, NY constantly to daven. The Rebbe had private minyanim and he was […]
PARSHAS MATOS-MASEI 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS MATOS-MASEI 5779 “THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY” An elderly man was asked what it’s like to become old. He responded, “I don’t know; I’m still learning.” This week marks the Shloshim for my beloved Bubby, Fruma bas Lieber a’h. During the last twenty years, when I would ask Bubby how she was […]
PARSHAS PINCHOS 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS PINCHOS 5779 “FRUITS OF DILIGENCE” Rabbi Eliezer Silver zt”l[1] was a brilliant scholar, who spared no effort to help fellow Jews and to preserve traditional Torah Judaism. He was the President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada and one of American Jewry’s foremost religious leaders. […]
PARSHAS BALAK 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS BALAK 5779 “NOT SO BLISSFUL” I was eighteen years old, and I had gotten my license a few months earlier. I was driving on a main road near Monsey, feeling very confident and grown-up. I was making a left turn, crossing a busy intersection into a shopping mall, when a car […]
PARSHAS CHUKAS 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS CHUKAS 5779 “THE KING’S ROAD” The following is based on the lecture I delivered in Kehillat New Hempstead (KNH), Shabbos Kodesh parshas Chukas 5778, June 23, 2018. I had the great fortune to serve as rabbi of KNH from 2007-2018. This lecture was the final that I gave in the […]