It was our first masah , our first forced march. We were barely two weeks in the army and Itzik, a sadistic little first sergeant who had made it his mission to break us into soldiers, owned us for …
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By Rabbi Binny Freedman
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5/15/24
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One wonders whether the Mashiach and the redemption he is meant to bring still have not come because we are still waiting for him, or because he is still waiting for us.
There is a story …
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By Binny Freedman
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4/17/24
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Years ago, I had the opportunity to take a long-overdue vacation with my family in Walt Disney World. For our children, who had just spent the better part of a year dealing with the day-to-day …
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By Binny Freedman
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4/3/24
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T here is a darkness sometimes that rages within which can overpower our very being.
I had a Battalion commander, who took the first watch on the tank after a brutal day in the Lebanon war. It …
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By Binny Freedman
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3/20/24
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In a cattle car in Poland, in the summer of 1942, Reb Azriel Dovid Fastag, a composer for the Modzitzer Rebbe, was headed to his death in Treblinka. Over a hundred Jews, forced to stand for days on …
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By Rabbi Binny Freedman
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3/13/24
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In 1860, a relatively unknown one-term congressman named Abraham Lincoln stunned the country by prevailing over three prominent rivals — William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates — …
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By Rabbi Binny Freedman
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2/21/24
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A former chief rabbi accused and arrested for possible bribery and embezzlement, a rabbinic leader found guilty of inappropriate behavior with his students, and yet another rabbi accused of bribing …
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By Rabbi Binny Freedman
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2/7/24
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May 1948. Tough times for the Jewish people, particularly for Jews struggling to claw out a place for themselves in a land they hoped to claim as their own.
A few months after the United Nations …
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By Rabbi Binny Freedman
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1/24/24
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I recall an incredible series of coincidences that to me were nothing short of miraculous. A student had been desperate to speak with me, and we finally managed to connect in New York the day before …
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By Binny Freedman
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1/10/24
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Anger is one of life’s greatest challenges. Who can resist and overcome its formidable temptations?
There is a fascinating moment in this week’s parsha of Vayishlach that …
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By Rabbi Binny Freedman
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11/29/23
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