The sound of the train pulling in to the Kfar Saba station filled the air on another beautiful afternoon. Hundreds of people getting on and off a second train across the platform, beneath the beautiful new glass and stone ceiling of the modern new station opened only two weeks before. more

It’s been a long and painful journey these past 2,000 years. Some of us thought we were there, that the journey was about to end, but like the intense pains of labor just before birth, it gets toughest when you are close to the finish line. more

Why was Abraham the first Jew? What happened to Noach? Last week at Yeshivat Orayta, we met a living legend, who, less with his words and more by the glint in his eye, provided the answer. On Oct. … more

In 1946, according to legend, a young polish boy digging through the rubble of the Warsaw ghetto found a tube with a manuscript inside. The African American soldier he sold it to for a dollar, recognized it as something Jewish and brought it to the chaplain of the U.S. 8th Army, Rabbi Herschel Schachter, ob”m. Rabbi Schachter quickly realized this was the manuscript of the holy Piaseczner Rebbe, Rav Klonymus Kalman Shapiro H”YD. more

She was sitting not more than 20 feet away, but I never met her. She was 15, and full of life. I must have seen her, but was not paying attention; I was busy with other things.  It had been … more

In 1897, Theodore Herzl convened the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. Though he defined himself as a secular Jew to whom Judaism was just an afterthought he gave form to a 2000 year … more

When you ask a question sometimes you get a very good answer. And sometimes you get two very good answers from two prominent rabbonim. My thanks to Rabbi Kenneth Auman and Rabbi Natan Slifkin. … more

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 … more

Prince Charming doesn’t always find Cinderella, and stories do not always have ‘happy’ endings, as most of us learn the hard way. I remember once, after a harried chase, catching a masked Arab who had been heaving rocks and cinderblocks at an IDF position in Hebron. more

How did it come to this? The headline went viral across the western world and the Middle East: Our former Israeli chief rabbi has been indicted for taking millions in bribes and faces trial for … more