Vayigash 5771-2010
“When a Jew Goes Down to Egypt” Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Vayigash, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. When Jacob learns that his beloved son is still…
Naso 5772-2012
"The Most Famous of All Nazarites--Samson" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald According to the Sefer Ha’Chinuch (the classic work on the 613 commandments, their rationale and their regulations,…
How Now, Red Cow
Every year, on the first or second Shabbat following Purim, a special reading from Numbers 19, is added to the regular Shabbat Torah reading. Known as Parashat Parah, the Torah…
Happy Bow Tie Day
Happy Bow Tie Day, celebrated annually on August 28th. The bow tie originated in the 17th century with Croatian soldiers who wore them as part of their uniforms in the Thirty Year War.…
Operation Magic Carpet
A decade ago, the Wall Street Journal reported on the involvement of the United States’ government in a mission that brought approximately 100 Yemenite Jews to America, a little…
A Dictionary for the Days of Awe
In Maimonides’ Laws of Repentance, he invokes five important and pertinent terms in his first paragraph, that are worth defining.Teshuva – means return, but connotes…
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…
How Now, Red Cow
Every year, on the first or second Shabbat following Purim, a special reading from Numbers 19, is added to the regular Shabbat Torah reading. Known as Parashat Parah, the Torah…
A Multi-Generational Covenant
During the bleak times of the Holocaust, a woman inmate, like all others, stared into the sky of Auschwitz, praying to God to end the darkness. Like millions of others, she never…
Can the Theory of Evolution and God Co-Exist?
On this “Darwin Day,” commemorating the birth of Charles Darwin on February 12, 1809, we address the issue of Darwin’s own belief in God, given his authorship of the famed Theory of…