Seeing the Points of Good in Each Jew The story is told of the Tanna Elisha ben Avuyah who abandoned the ways of Hashem and became the heretic whom they called ‘Acher’ [‘Other’]. We won’t go into the details of how he became a heretic for those who are interested can read the entire account…
A Practical Strategy to Survive the Darkness Let’s be honest. No matter who we are or what we do, the war is taking its toll on us, sucking away our vitality. Many of us are sad or depressed. Grief, despair, worry, and sleepless nights are all on the rise. We are either directly suffering from…
Learning from King Chizkiyahu’s Mistake Many years ago, during the reign of the righteous king Chizkiyahu, the kingdom of Yehudah was being overrun by the Assyrians. One Jewish city after the other fell to the invaders and the local population of Jews were subjected to unspeakable atrocities. One final city remained unconquered—Yerushalayim. High officials of…
The Importance of Tikkun Chatzot It is taught (Berachot 3a): אָמַר רַב יִצְחָק בַּר שְׁמוּאֵל מִשְּׁמֵיהּ דְּרַב שָׁלֹשׁ מִשְׁמָרוֹת הָוֵי הַלַּיְלָה וְעַל כָּל מִשְׁמָר וּמִשְׁמָר יוֹשֵׁב הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְשׁוֹאֵג כַּאֲרִי וְאוֹמֵר אוֹי לִי שֶׁחֵרַבְתִּי אֶת בֵּיתִי וְשָׂרַפְתִּי אֶת הֵיכָלִי וְהִגְלִיתִי אֶת בָּנַי לְבֵין אוּמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם (Rav Yitzchak bar Shmuel said in the name of…
Every study that we have seen shows that levels of depression, sadness, despondency, anxiety and many types of mental health disorders have skyrocketed since the outbreak of Covid, reaching record levels across practically all demographic groups including the very young. As the verse says in describing the conditions of our world just prior to the…