A group of Jewish children with a teacher in Samarkand, (in modern Uzbekistan), ca. 1910. (Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/LOC)
My Cheder teachers dressed differently, but they look very similar to the rabbi in this picture. Dress up the children in a 1960’s wardrobe, and they will look just like the kids with whom I went to school.
We study [...]

How a pile of pillows taught me how to repair my Tzitzit:
Debbie and I had to be in the airport at 6am, and we had worked until 2am, so we shoved the basics into our suitcases and rushed to the airport. I unpacked this morning to find that I had stuffed the wrong Tzitzit [...]

A more earthbound version of the Devil appears in Dostoevsky’sThe Brothers Karamazov. His character Ivan had a very strong sense of the earth’s evil. Unable to bear the thought of being his father’s murderer, he is overtaken by a bout of fever. In his delirium Ivan meets the Devil in person:
“He was a gentleman, [...]

I am honored to present another Reb Sam Glaser essay with practical meaning for Elul and Rosh Hashanah. Keep ‘em coming Reb Sam!
When my first child was two years old I cut off our TV.  He was more interested in Pokemon than playing with me.  The decision was rash and spontaneous but I’m confident it [...]

Some people laugh and enjoy my Curious George t-shirt while others think it looks ridiculous. I don’t care. I am wearing it on my morning walks to help me prepare for Rosh Hashana.
The Curious George books did not hold my attention for too long when I was very young. A student in my father’s yeshiva [...]

Both the father and his son were different: The father prayed for years to have a child. I knew from numerous conversations that, no matter how much he wanted a child, he was even more desperate for his wife to bear a child. I observed him three times a day at prayer and could [...]

“For the ways of God are straight.” (Hosea 14:10) the Shelah HaKodesh (Torah Ohr – Rosh Hashanah 3) asks why the word “straight” is in the plural form in Hebrew, “Yesharim,” rather than “Yashar.”
The Shelah answers that Hosea is describing two different creations of “Straight:” the first is that God creates us straight. We [...]

Most of us are familiar with two directions of service: “Itra’uta D’litata,” and “Itra’uta D’l’eila,” or, Stirrings from below, connections stirred by us, below here on earth towards God, and “Stirrings from Above,” initiated by God, Above, to reach out to us, here, below.
The Sefat Emet, (Likkutim L’Chodesh Elul) says that the only responsibility of [...]

“To behold the sweetness of God and to contemplate in His Sanctuary.” (Verse 4)
Rabbi Elazar taught: The righteous in the World to Come will eat of the same Manna that Israel ate while in the desert. Do not think that the portions will be measured as they were in the desert. Each portion will taste [...]