At a Loss for Words?

It All Becomes Clear in the End!

Who's Pulling the Strings

This week's Torah portion reveals that the entirety of Jewish history, with all its uplifting joys and terrible hardships, was determined in advance.

Connecting Teshuva & the Final Redemption

Rav Yaakov Moshe Harlop, a venerated student of Rav Kook and one of the heads of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav after his teacher's death, often spoke of the contemporary phenomenon of baalei teshuvah, returnees to Torah observance. The problem was that this was far from a widespread trend at the time – 80 years ago, give or take – and his students wondered what he was referring to. On the contrary, it seemed that society in the Land of Israel was deteriorating towards secularism...

How to Join the Ranks of the Greatest People in History

A wise man once said: "The history of the world is actually the history of the great men of the world." He meant, of course, that the great people are those who move the historic processes and determine their countries' agenda. There is much truth to this saying, but it must be understood correctly – and if it is, that will determine whether we will end up as one of these "great men," or rather trail far behind them...

Stop Working Just for the Pay!

Once when I was serving reserve duty (miluim) in the IDF, I was sitting in the synagogue tent learning some Torah, when I happened to overhear some tidbits of conversation between two of my buddies. One of them was Torah-observant, the other one not yet. Out of the corner of my ear I heard the latter ask, "Tell me, how do you live with the fact that I can enjoy the world to the hilt, while you're saddled with all those Torah restrictions?" The religious one gave him a quick, short answer: "You enjoy This World, while I'll enjoy the World to Come!" Cringe.

Finding Our Power & Channeling It

"When you go out to war against your enemies…" Going to battle means "going out," leaving our regular routine and habits. The Torah educates us to gentle behavior, to making concessions, and certainly not to kill – under normal circumstances. But in wartime, killing Israel's enemies is a mitzvah, and requires one to become nearly a different person, one with great strength and aggressiveness. These are traits that can cause a person to lose the proper balance...

Returning Lost (Spiritual) Items

The story is told of a brother and sister who set out to search for spirituality. Each one found something: The brother found and returned to Judaism, while his sister fell under the influence of a guru in India and decided to remain there...