"Think before you Speak" is a commonly known concept which makes a lot of sense and can help you deliver clear messages to others you are communicating with and not get your foot stuck in your mouth. But have you ever heard of the concept of "Think Before You Eat"?
Well Judaism actually has a lot to say about this and considers it to be a critical component of healthy living.
Why would you think before you eat, and what would you even be thinking about?
The truth is, that the origins of this concept, don't begin with thinking before eating, but with thinking after eating, as it states in Torah portion of this week, "and you will eat, be satisfied, and then bless G-d". This verse implies that… Read More »
Desperate to enter Israel, entreating and asking in every way possible to be able to walk in Israel even for just a short while, all the while declaring true love for the land and the real inheritors of the land.
The week started off with dreadful news of two mass shootings and America was once again shaken to the core. Dozens of people were killed by two crazed hate filled individuals, in two different incidents. The nation was jolted once again as it faced the horror of more mass killings and the shocking sight of hundreds of loved ones mourning their family members who they had been with just moments before.
Not everything that we throw out is truly junk, and sometimes from what appears to be waste, can come great potential.
The Yemin Moshe neighborhood, is a breathtaking series of cobblestone streets and alleys on the side of a hill overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem that features beautiful small homes and terraces which are covered in all kinds of wonderful flowers, vines and plants. Along with the neighborhood next door, Mishkenot Shananim, this neighborhood was among the first ones built outside the walls of the Old City by Sir Moses Montefiore in the 1890’s when Jews were afraid to live outside the secure walls of the city.
This past year was an amazing year of growth at Chabad Sudbury Hebrew School with dozens of students from the Sudbury area and beyond, and a year packed with excitement, learning and growth. We had lots of new families, join us this year and we have received wonderful feedback from them, including saying things like "nothing in the world would make us miss their year end celebration, after such an amazing year", or "our only regret is that we didn't start him earlier".
An elderly man was one of several new faces to join us at our Shabbat program at the Wingate today.
This past Sunday, dozens of students and their family members joined together for an exciting year end celebration and award ceremony. The students shared some presentations connected with topics that they had learned this year including art projects, narrating about Jewish heroes and lessons learned and other creative descriptions of the topics they had covered in the various grades.
We gave a big thank you and Mazal Tov to Hebrew School teacher, Chavi Fireman, who has been with us for the last three years and is getting married and moving to New… 
Thank you to the huge crowd who joined us this past Wednesday evening to hear Marthe Cohn share her incredible inspiring story of survival in the Holocaust and how she became a spy for the Allies against the Nazis.
Yesterday, I was visiting someone and they complimented me on something that I had been working on and on the apparent progress I had made. Little did they know that the last few days had been a little challenging in this specific area and I was feeling a little challenged. Yet knowing that they had no idea, and they had said the compliment in a very genuine way, encouraged me in a very profound way to make more progress and to keep going.
This past Saturday, on the last day of Passover as we prepared to recite the Yizkor Memorial Prayer at the Chabad Center of Sudbury, I read and spoke about the meaning of the words of Isaiah which are traditionally read on that day. In that reading, Isaiah talks of our hopes and aspirations for the future of the world where all of mankind will work with together for a common greater good that has been envisioned for this world by G-d, when of course there will be no more fighting and bigotry.
Thank you to the dozens of guests who graced at our Seder Tables and thank you to the dozens who have been coming over the course of Passover to our daily services. Chabad of Sudbury was also able to put on several Passover programs at local senior homes like the Wingate & Orchard Hill to bring the joy of Passover to the residents.
This picture is a handwritten prayer that was composed by spiritual leaders in the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp for people to say before the ate Leavened Food on Passover due to the difficult and dangerous living conditions.
Every so often I end up in my wife's hometown of Los Angeles where even in midwinter the plants are blooming and the flowers are blossoming. When I see that, especially when I know that it is still winter back east and the branches are bare and the ground is frozen, it is both enjoyable and refreshing.
It is not every day that you meet someone who stared down a Death Sentence, spent 11 years in the Gulag and kept up his Jewish pride and positive attitude throughout. Thank you Rav Yosef Mendelevich for an incredibly inspiring evening last night and for all your perseverance on behalf of Soviet Jewry and world Jewry in all the years since then.