✡ We Stand With the People of Israel ✡
By Rabbi Shani Abramowitz For nearly all 49 days of the Omer, I am simultaneously blessed with and plagued by one persistent question: How do we unlock and open the doors to our tradition, whittle down barriers, and make our shuls more open, expansive, … Read More
By Rabbi Scott Hoffman Far and away the most confounding part of the Jewish calendar occurred this past week and the previous one. We observed Yom Ha-shoah, the day of Holocaust Remembrance, and marked the greatest tragedy in the four-thousand-year history of our people last … Read More
By Rabbi Matt Derrenbacher One of the best-known texts from the entire Torah is the Sh’ma: וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכׇל–לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכׇל–נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכׇל–מְאֹדֶֽךָ: “Hear/Listen/Understand, Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Sh’ma is recited every single day, once … Read More
By Rabbi Beth Jacowitz Chottiner This month, we started the book of Exodus. We read the well-known words that we recite each year at the Passover Seder: “There arose a king who knew not Joseph.” We were reminded that the … Read More
By Rabbi Yoni Rudansky Last year, I wrote a D’var Torah in these pages. Many of you commented and enjoyed it, and I appreciated that (as my Zaidy used to say, “Flattery will get you…Everywhere!”). But it was premature. My … Read More
By Rabbi Avrohom Litvin I am writing these words while sitting among more than 5,000 of my fellow Chabad Shluchim at the International Conference of Chabad Emissaries in New York. It is a sight that defies description. Rabbis and community … Read More
By Rabbi Scott Hoffman Between 2018 and 2025, I moved from Long Island to suburban Philadelphia, then to suburban D.C., then to New Orleans, then back to suburban D.C. before arriving in Louisville in May. I’ve learned to make the … Read More
By Rabbi Chaim Litvin As we prepare to close the year and enter the new one, the Torah reading offers us a timeless message. In Parshat Nitzavim we read: Atem nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Hashem Elokeichem (“You are all standing … Read More
By Rabbi Ben Freed We have two major fast days in Judaism: Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur. We gather on Yom Kippur in our synagogues and temples, including many Jews who do not observe other holidays or come often on … Read More
By Rabbi Shani Abramowitz I have always been impatient with my own progress. Growing up, I collected hobbies like precious coins. But my problem was that I wasn’t always willing to do the work. So just as soon as I … Read More