PARSHAS TERUMAH 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS TERUMAH 5779 “PERSONAL INVESTMENT”[1] It’s literally the million-dollar question (perhaps more) that every organization, corporation, religious institution, and educational institution constantly grapples with: How can we get people to be more involved? In an article that appeared in the Atlantic in February 2018[2], it was reported that Amazon was offering its employees […]
PARSHAS MISHPATIM 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS MISHPATIM 5779 “BRICKS OF SAPPHIRE”[1] In his Haggadah, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, relates a personal story. One year on Pesach, he led a Seder for soldiers of the Israeli air force and their families. There were about one hundred and fifty men, women, and children, including […]
PARSHAS YISRO 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS YISRO 5779 “THE DELICATE BALANCE”[1] One of the greatest English seforim I have read in the last few years was Mind Over Man, a collection of discourses from Rav Yechiel Perr, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Derech Eisan in Far Rockaway, NY. The book is full of poignant and candid insights into human […]
PARSHAS BESHALACH/SHABBOS SHIRA 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS BESHALACH/SHABBOS SHIRA 5779 “SECRET OF SONG”[1] One of the goals of the Nazis was to break the Jewish spirit and to destroy all semblances of dignity. Dignity in response to attempted acts of physical and spiritual degradation was dramatically demonstrated in Lublin towards the end of 1939. The German commander, Glovoznik, had […]
PARSHAS BO 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS BO 5779 “BREAK IN THE ACTION”[1] Mark Twain famously quipped that “denial aint just a river in Egypt”. Pharaoh was in denial about his humanity, fancying himself to be a deity. To cover up for the fact that he had human needs, he clandestinely came down to the Nile every morning to […]
PARSHAS VAERA 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS VAERA 5779 “COMMITTED SOLDIERS”[1] Tsachi Sasson served in the Israel Defense Force’s armored corps. He loved others and was always looking to help others. After his years of service, he married and had two children. On Sunday evening, February 11, 2001, Tsachi was driving from work in Yerushalayim to his home in […]
PARSHAS SHEMOS 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS SHEMOS 5779 “SIGNS OR WONDERS”[1] The following speech was delivered by Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau to (then) President Barack Obama on March 22, 2013, at Yad Vashem, during Obama’s visit to Israel[2]: “On April 11, 1945 in the Buchenwald Concentration camp which you recently visited, American troops liberated us. One of the […]
PARSHAS VAYECHI 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS VAYECHI 5779 “SWEETNESS OF INVESTMENT”[1] In January 1975, a 17-year-old German student and part-time concert promoter named Vera Brandes called the acclaimed pianist Keith Jarett and requested that he perform at a concert at the Opera House in Cologne, Germany on January 24, 1975. Jarett accepted, but insisted that he be provided […]
PARSHAS VAYIGASH 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS VAYIGASH 5779 “EVER CLOSER”[1] In his inspiring memoir, Out of the Depths, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau relates the final hours of his father’s life. Along with twenty-eight thousand Jews of Piotrkow, where he served as rabbi, his father was taken to Treblinka. The day that they arrived, another train arrived packed with […]
PARSHAS VAYESHEV/CHANUKAH 5779
STAM TORAH PARSHAS VAYESHEV/CHANUKAH 5779 “BEYOND DESPAIR”[1] Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman[2] related: When I was learning in the Ponovezh yeshiva in B’nei Brak, I once ate a Shabbos seudah at a fellow named Hershkowitz who lived on Rechov Chazon Ish. During that seudah he related the following personal anecdote: “When I was a bochur, I learned […]