Maximize Your Moments
In the Torah portion of Va’era we’re introduced to Moshe (Moses) and Aaron – two greats of the Jewish people. Sometimes Moses is mentioned first in the verse and sometimes Aaron is mentioned first. Why is this so? It’s explained that they were both equally as great. But that raises another question: How could that be? Everyone knows Moses and that he was the great leader of the Jewish people and the greatest prophet of Israel. How could it be that they were equal in greatness?
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In the Torah portion of Shemot, we read about the Jewish midwives. One of their names was Shifra and the other one was Puah. Yet we know that Shifra and Puah were actually Yocheved and Miram – the mother and sister or Moses. These are women who were also leaders of the Jewish people, why did the Torah give them names that represent seemingly menial tasks?
Rabb Ari Enkin shares…
Sometimes in life we may feel that “we’re not enough” – and that plays out by limiting our dreams, we feel like we are putting ourselves in a box, or we feel like we need to dress or speak a certain way so other people understand you. The truth is that with proper perspective, we are able to break through that feeling and tap into something much greater. Jacob Rupp brings out one of the concepts behind Chanukah
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A famous question is asked – Why do we celebrate 8 days of Chanukah, when the miracle was only 7 days? They found oil that would last 1 day and a miracle occurred and it lasted for 8 – so in theory we should only be celebrating 7 days of miracle, Why then do we celebrate 8 days? A book was written called “Yemei Shmonah” with 500 answers to this questions – Rabbi Pessin shares an important lesson for the Jewish people in their ongoing battle to uphold the Torah and the Jewish heritage.
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Chanukah is definitely one of the most widely observant holidays. No matter how far a Jew is from observance, he or she still has something Chanukah related in their home around this time of year. What is the secret to this connection to Chanukah? Rabbi Ari Enkin shares..
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The Talner Rebbe and the Slonimer Rebbe experience two similar scenarios on the night of Chanukah – In both scenarios an important lesson is learned. How would you react? Rabbi Pesson shares the Hanukkah insight.
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The Jewish law states that if someone doesn’t have a home, he is exempt from lighting the chanukah candles. But we should ask – If we lit the chanukah candles in the Beit Mikdash in the Holy Temple, why don’t we light candles in the synagogues which are considered “miniature Temples” – from this we learn an interesting lesson which Rabbi Aaron Pessin shares
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Everyone’s heard of the Chanukah song Maoz Tzur. Jews of all backgrounds sing this famous song after lighting the Chanukah / Hanukkah candles for all 8 days. But do we think about what we are saying?
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Our Rabbi’s teach that shaking the Lulav can bring abundance from above. The Lulav is required to be straight and it’s compared to a spine. What can we learn from this? Rabbi Pessin shares an insight on the mitzva of shaking the Lulav.
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In the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot we are commanded to bundle the 4 species together and shake them (The Lulav, Etrog, Hadassim & Aravot). We shake this bundle to each of the 6 directions – right, left, up, down, forward, back – that’s 6 times. In each direction we do 3 shakes. That’s 18. We repeat this in the prayer service 5 times. That is a total of 90 times that we shake the lulav. However, we know that the significance of the number 91 is tremendous – and we are missing one shake to align with this significant number. Rabbi Aaron Pessin shares the secret.
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