Imagine the scene, Abraham is chatting with none other than G-d, who had come to visit him as he recovers from his circumcision at the ripe old age of 99, and suddenly he tells G-d "Hold on, I will be right back".
What on earth would make Abraham put G-d on hold?
Indeed this is how the portion of the week begins, as Abraham is enjoying his Divine guest, when he suddenly notices three "men" coming through the desert, and he runs to attend to them.
Abraham interrupted his visit with G-d, not to check his Whatsapp, or Facebook messages, but rather it was to welcome guests and travelers into his tent, so that he could look after them and attend to their needs.
The Talmud learns from this story, that looking after… Read More »
After a long time on the sidelines and when he is well into his mid seventies, he has been dramatically put in a position of leadership this week. Once almost killed in battle when fighting to save his blood brothers, and almost clobbered by the judiciary for questionable crimes, he has made a tremendous leap forward as he has now been placed in a prime position to shape the course of Israel's future.
The protagonist of the story is Moshe Biton, a bus driver for the 65 Egged bus line, which travels from Pisat Ze’ev to Givat Shaul in Jerusalem.
Rosh Hashanah just finished and we are still processing what a beautiful and inspiring holiday it was.
Usually when I drive alone, I listen to classes, make calls (from my hands free device) or spend time thinking and planning. One day this week, I turned on NPR as they were playing some live reporting from the BBC as the Queen's Coffin was being escorted down the road from Horse Guards Parade, down Whitehall, to the House of Parliament and Westminster.
Growing up in the UK, the Queen and the Royal Family were a part of the culture that we grew up in. We heard about their happenings, spoke about their etiquette and manners and heard when someone got engaged or something dramatic happened.
On Tuesday, our daughter Chana flew to Israel, where she will be spending a year studying at the Beit Chana Institute in Tsfat, 2,953 feet above sea level.
This week our family spent a couple of days in Upstate New York and while we were there we visited a Maple Farm that was next door to where we were staying and a dairy farm. These places were not official tourist sites but when we knocked on their doors, they were more than happy to show us around and give us some of their time.
We all have values that are dear and important to us whether it be "family", "being compassionate", "getting a good education" and a whole range of other ideas. As Jews, the value system that we aspire to live by, also includes the performance of Mitzvos, an emphasis on altruistic behavior, spending time studying some of Judaism's Torah teachings, uplifting and improving the world to reflect its Divine intent and many other values.
It was 4am and the gunfire was intense as the thud of explosions shook our building. No it was not Beirut in the 1980's, it was my apartment building in Caracas in 1999.
About two months ago, my daughter asked me to remove the training wheels from her bike and teach her to ride without them. The big day finally arrived, and we unscrewed the training wheels and were ready to go.
I recently had my annual physical with my Doctor and thank G-d all is well. As we finished the physical part of the checkup, we then spent about fifteen minutes chatting about life, our children, their interests, his visits back to his hometown in Pakistan where he is going for the first time in over three years this summer, what village life was like for him when he grew up, his elderly mother, faith, and so many more topics.
Camp Gan Israel has had another amazing week so far with the dozens of campers who are enjoying the camp.
and a trip to Wardsberry Farm, lots of Sports, Arts and crafts and so much more.
Camp Gan Israel has gotten off to an amazing start and a truly fun filled week of activities.
We are so grateful to our amazing counselors and teen helpers who are helping the campers enjoy such an amazing week.
On Sunday night we sat in the audience and watched our daughter Chana deliver a beautiful short speech at her High School Graduation in Brooklyn. Seated with dozens of her classmates, all beaming with pride and enjoying this tremendous milestone, we couldn't help but be so happy and grateful for this moment.