.jpg)
As Moshe’s speech draws to an end, he addresses some of the practical, pragmatic issues at hand; one such item is the issue of succession: And Moshe called Yehoshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel: ‘Be strong and of good courage; for you Read More »
Aish.com »
.jpg)
GOOD MORNING! Rosh Hashana begins Wednesday evening, September 8th! Many Jews all over the world are rushing to make sure that they have places reserved in their synagogues. I am reminded of the story of the person who had to deliver a very important message to a man in a synagogue on Rosh Hashana. Read More »
Aish.com »
.jpg)
When trying to do something, it’s important not to get discouraged. In this week’s Torah portion (Deut. 30: 11-14) Moses urges the people not to feel discouraged about accomplishing their goal, but rather to realize that they can succeed. We will gain so much in life by not getting easily discouraged. Read More »
Aish.com »
The slain rapper turned observant Jew is a lesson in the power of redemption. The first time Yoseph Robinson z’l stared down the barrel of a gun was 15 years ago, when the Bronx drug dealer was betrayed by a colleague in crime. It changed his life. Read More »
Aish.com »
_(english).jpg)
A letter jolted me out of my complacency, reminding me that real change is truly possible. Each year, as the first blast of the shofar sounds, my soul twinges. For with late summer vacations and the back-to-school frenzy, I am usually completely unprepared for the challenge the mournful wail issues. Read More »
Aish.com »
Canada and Israel are tied for eighth place. Surprised? Don’t be. Canada and Israel have much in common. We’re both big believers in democracy and in fairness, we’re both highly diverse multicultural societies and both of us have dynamic economies. Read More »
Aish.com »
Don’t ask for CVs if you already know whom you will hire. Q. Our workplace has a rule that new hires must be advertised and CVs solicited. But many times the hiring boss already knows who he needs for the job. Is it ethical to waste the time of the other applicants in this way? A. A situation similar to yours is discussed in the mishna. Read More »
Aish.com »
Advocating for our children. I preface this with a proviso: The majority of teachers are caring, kind and dedicated to promoting the happiness and self-esteem of their students. They are usually underpaid, underappreciated, overworked, and continue in spite of that, because they love their profession. Read More »
Aish.com »
Everything you need to know to bake it right this Rosh Hashana. Every Jewish holiday has its special foods and Rosh Hashana is no exception. The first thing that comes to mind when baking for the Yom Tov season is round challah that we consume during the High Holiday season all through Simchat Torah. Read More »
Aish.com »
Cooking with the symbolic foods we eat Rosh Hashana night. On Rosh Hashana night, it is traditional to eat simanim, different symbolic foods that either taste sweet or have names that sound similar to our hopes and prayers for the new year. Read More »
Aish.com »
Answering the following questions is a great place to start preparing for the High Holidays. Women’s magazines are filled with relationship quizzes (right after the “perfect diet” pages). For good or bad, women seem obsessed with taking the temperature of their partners. Read More »
Aish.com »
Help! My husband’s negativity is dragging me down. Dear Rebbetzin Feige, My husband is really unhappy with life, his job, everything. He says our marriage is the only good thing in his life, but his negativity is dragging me down. I tell him, “Be happy, you have a job in today’s world, even if you don’t like it.” He says that doesn’t help. Read More »
Aish.com »
The contemporary relevance of a discarded Nazi propaganda film. If you thought that nothing new could still be said about the Holocaust you need to see Yael Hersonski’s remarkable recently released documentary A Film Unfinished. It is a movie about a movie that makes us re-examine what we thought we knew about the Warsaw ghetto. Read More »
Aish.com »
After 18 years of selfless love, all I get before my son leaves is: “Bye, thanks”?! Read More »
Aish.com »
Living up to your ideals this new year. I could get 99 out of 100 people to agree that speaking gossip about another person is wrong. I also know that if I polled those folks, 98 out of the 99 will still routinely speak gossip. Read More »
Aish.com »
The situation seemed hopeless. We were sitting ducks inside a tin, rolling coffin. If a miracle hadn’t happened that Friday afternoon as we were driving to our Shabbat destination, this article would never have been written. Instead you would have read the standard description of a horrible terror attack. “Six Family Members of Amona Killed. Read More »
Aish.com »
The Arab lobby is one of the strongest in America — even stronger than Israel’s, says a controversial new book. Read More »
Aish.com »
Watch the video of BBC’s shockingly fair treatment of the Gaza flotilla. A BBC documentary on the Gaza flotilla incident screened this week is causing a storm of protest from critics of Israel, who are furious that the program was not as hostile to Israel as they thought it should be. Read More »
Aish.com »
There is an interesting subtext to this week’s parsha, a concept that links what at first glance seem to be independent and unrelated teachings. The idea is joy. The last mention of joy in the parsha may be the most instructive. Read More »
Aish.com »
“With all due respect” isn’t just a saying – it’s a way to live. In this week’s portion (Deut. 28: 50), the Torah refers to disrespectful chutzpah as negative, cruel behavior. The Torah way is not to brazenly “mouth-off” at people, but to speak and behave respectfully. Read More »
Aish.com »
Can two wrongs make it right? Q. A certain store overcharged me a substantial amount. I don’t have enough documentation to prove it. Can I right the wrong by finding a way to take merchandise with the value of their debt? A. Read More »
Aish.com »
GOOD MORNING! How do you get the most out of your life and make the most of your life? It all depends on setting priorities and goals, making decisions and following through. In essence, using your free will. What does the Torah teach regarding free will? The Almighty says, “See, I have put before you, life and good, death and evil … Read More »
Aish.com »
My grandmother and the terribly hot summer in Brooklyn. She turns to me, her blue eyes faded, the petal soft skin of her cheeks, deeply lined. She smells like Oil of Olay lotion, the pink kind. In the overstuffed chair, she is tiny and her shoulders are bent with the weight of the years. Read More »
Aish.com »
My brother can’t forgive our father. Doesn’t he know that we all disappoint those we love? In the summer of 2005, my son is born at home. His birth is everything I could ask for. The midwife is inexplicably running late and my son enters this world directly into his father’s hands. Read More »
Aish.com »
A new menu for the new year. It always sneaks up on us so quickly. It seems like school just ended (it seems like Passover just ended!) and it’s already time to start preparing for Rosh Hashana. Read More »
Aish.com »
Is being a parent more difficult and less rewarding than expected? Most of us take for granted that we want children. Many of us spend a fortune trying to make sure we get them. Read More »
Aish.com »
As she walks down the aisle, will the mother-in-law be throwing rotten tomatoes? Dear Rosie & Sherry, I am a 29-year-old woman who has finally found the right man. My fiancé, Gary, and I are planning to be married in six weeks. You’d think I’d be on cloud nine, but the truth is that I’m terrified. Read More »
Aish.com »
Yes I am the teacher, and yes these are the rules! I don’t know why kids dread the first day of school. I know why the teachers dread it. Read More »
Aish.com »
The guru’s special mantra would give him a constant high. But there was an unexpected catch. Justin Goldberg was thirsting for a deeper connection to spirituality. His annual High Holiday visit to shul just didn’t do it. Read More »
Aish.com »
Help! My niece can’t stop eating! Dear Emuna, One of my closest friends gets extremely angry with me when we converse. I think he can’t tolerate not feeling like the smartest person in the room. Read More »
Aish.com »
Instead of joining the Iranian army, this young Jew became an outstanding Israeli soldier. About three months ago, Major-General Sami Turgeman, commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ ground forces, delivered a motivational speech to cadets at the Bahad 1 officer’s training base in southern Israel. Read More »
Aish.com »
At the height of our professional careers, we gave it all up to start over again in Israel. The other day I felt compelled to search for the words of Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Less Traveled. Out of the recesses of my dusty file drawers of my mind, I heard the famous refrain of the road less traveled. But I could not remember the whole poem. Read More »
Aish.com »
How the Jewish people are like the bullied kid in the schoolyard. How do you stop bullying? Jodee Blanco, author of the best-selling book, Please Stop Laughing at us… One Survivor’s Quest to Prevent School Bullying, has a number of insights that should be of particular interest to Jewish readers. Read More »
Aish.com »
I’m not downsizing. I’m upgrading. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. There’s no doubt about it. Among those of us over 40, the second leading cause of death isn’t cancer, heart disease, or even diabetes. No, my friends. It’s moving. The second leading cause of death among the over 40 crowd isn’t cancer. It’s moving. Read More »
Aish.com »
It would be a sacrilege to build the proposed mosque at Ground Zero. A place is made sacred by a widespread belief that it was visited by the miraculous or the transcendent (Lourdes, the Temple Mount), by the presence there once of great nobility and Read More »
Aish.com »
Government should not deny citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered the following speech on August 3, 2010 at Governors Island, off the tip of Lower Manhattan. Read More »
Aish.com »
Parshat Ki Tetzei is teeming with mitzvot, many of which are concerned with family and relationships. One such mitzvah deals with prioritizing inheritance: If a man has two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have borne him children, both Read More »
Aish.com »
We’ll enjoy life more if we don’t go overboard. In this week’s Torah portion (Deut. 21: 20) we learn that gluttony – overindulging in food and drink – often leads to unhappiness. The Torah wants us to enjoy life to the max – by enjoying it in moderation. In our story, a couple of kids discover that too much of a good thing … Read More »
Aish.com »
GOOD MORNING! There’s an old Jewish saying that “If one person calls you a donkey, ignore him. If two people call you a donkey … buy a saddle!” With all the negative comments about Israel and Jews one sees and hears in the media, one might start to wonder if he should buy a saddle. Read More »
Aish.com »
A response to the firestorm of comments to my article about Marc and Chelsea. My article last week about Marc and Chelsea’s wedding touched off a firestorm of comments. I had presumed that the majority of Aish.com readers – interested in Jewish topics and in strengthening their Jewish knowledge – accepted the premise that intermarriage is wrong. Read More »
Aish.com »
Supporting Israel squares with the core principles of the Left. Israel continues to be the demon poster-child of the Left. The prime example of a repressive regime and abuser of human rights. On the Left, people became outraged and agitated over Israel more than over any other cause. Read More »
Aish.com »
Like you, I belonged to the Methodist Church and married a Jew. I know I’m writing at the worst possible time. As you and Marc begin married life, you hardly need another Jew offering intrusive suggestions about how to navigate your interfaith marriage. Read More »
Aish.com »
Change for the New Year starts here. Circuit Court Judge Alice Gilbert had an innovative idea. She required every person convicted in her courtroom — for crimes ranging from manslaughter to passing bad checks — to write a 2,000-word essay answering four questions: 1.How did my crime affect me? 2. How did my crime affect my family? 3. Read More »
Aish.com »
I was running away from my Jewish identity. A stranger’s reproach turned my world around. Years ago I attended a Catholic university in Los Angeles. I had no intention of joining their religion, but I did my best to assimilate into mainstream campus life. Read More »
Aish.com »
The UN has lost all credibility and many real victims now suffer. The UN has lost all credibility and many real victims now suffer. Most are familiar with the famous child’s tale about the boy who cried wolf. Read More »
Aish.com »
Has social networking/Facebook improved or diminished the quality of our relationships? Read More »
Aish.com »
A Giant discovery in Goliath’s home town. Sorry we couldn’t resist… GOLIATH’S HOMETOWN UNCOVERED: A GIANT DISCOVERY Archaeologists have made a giant discovery in Tel Tzafit, once the city of Gat (also called Gath), Goliath’s home town! And the excitement is building as their findings continue to bring the Bible to life. Read More »
Aish.com »
Do Not Read While Operating Heavy Machinery Are you always in a rush? Do you find yourself constantly racing from task to task, wishing you had more time? Have you bought a book on time management, but haven’t had a chance to read it? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, you might want to skip the rest of this column. Read More »
Aish.com »
The definition of being a father. It’s hard being a father today. The difficult economy has reduced many men’s ability to provide for their families. Dad’s who have often measured their self worth through their financial success are now grappling with the fear of unemployment or reduced paychecks. Families are struggling. Read More »
Aish.com »
Adolescence is really about conformity, not rebellion. I grew up in a very small town. If the girls in my eighth grade class wore makeup, they were sent home to wash it off. In high school, the only girls that wore makeup were the ones with a “reputation.” (I know, I sound quaint. Read More »
Aish.com »
