The Antidote For Baseless Hatred
The calendrical period between the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz and the Fast of Tisha b’av is known as Bein Hame’tzarim (in the midst of distress) and is referred to colloquially…
Vayeira 5781-2020
“Mount Moriah: Building for the Future through Love” (updated and revised from Vayeira 2000-5761) by, Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald Last week’s parasha, parashat Lech Lecha, began with G-d…
Kedoshim 5782-2022
“Giving Proper Reproof” (updated and revised from Kedoshim 5763-2003) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Kedoshim, we encounter the well-known Biblical dictum,…
Minsk, Pinsk and Dvinsk?
Dvinsk, also known as Daugavpils or Duenaburg, is Latvia’s second largest city, situated 140 miles southeast of Riga, Latvia’s capital (Dvinsk is the city’s Russian name). Dvinsk became a…
A Phoenix in B’nai Brak
Fifty years ago, on September 3, 1969, corresponding to the 20th of Elul, Rabbi Joseph S. Kahaneman, known to the world as the “Ponevezher Rav,” passed away. Who was this man, and what is…
The Chazon Ish
Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, known as the Chazon Ish, was considered to be one of the most important rabbinic voices in Europe and Israel in the period before World War II and its…
Minsk, Pinsk and Dvinsk?
Dvinsk, also known as Daugavpils or Duenaburg, is Latvia’s second largest city, situated 140 miles southeast of Riga, Latvia’s capital (Dvinsk is the city’s Russian name). Dvinsk became…
Rabbi Shmuel Salant
On the 29th of Av, 1909, corresponding to August 16th, Rabbi Shmuel Salant, Jerusalem’s long-time Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, passed away. Rabbi Shmuel was born in 1816 in Bialystok, then…
Of Shamrocks, Snails and Survivors: the life of Rabbi Isaac Herzog
Rabbi Isaac Herzog, the State of Israel’s first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, passed away, at age 70, on this date - the 19th of Tammuz – sixty years ago, in 1959, corresponding to July 25th.…
The Hijacked Sage
Born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1906, Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner was raised in a family that had roots in both the world of Chassidut (Ger) and Lithuanian Jewry. After receiving a private…