A fearless leader of the Jewish people.

Buddy was the first seeing-eye dog.

Condemned To Death

Ivy Leaguer decides to study Talmud

My pals, today I turn 50. According to our Sages, this is the age at which one gives advice. 

Here are 21 pebbles of wisdom I’ve picked up in my 50 trips around the sun:
 

Too many Jews are turning their back on something they don’t even know. I was one of them.

One week to go. After seven and a half years of reading Talmud, only seven days and seven pages remain until the Daf Yomi cycle renews. G-d willing, I will attend the massive celebration called Siyum HaShasat MetLife Stadium in New Jersey next week, along with nearly 100,000 other Jews. I can scarcely believe it.

My pals, last week I learned of a beautiful tradition originated by the Baal Shem Tov – Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer, founder of the Hasidic movement. 

On your birthday, you begin to study the psalm corresponding to the year you’re living.

In trying to become a holier person, one can go astray despite donning the garments, behaviors, and thoughts of holiness. 

The Lubavitcher Rebbe had a beautiful teaching about this…

During the early days of Hasidism, just as now, many “sophisticated” Jews turned away from the tradition of their ancestors in order to pursue a life based on secular values.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov responded with a story…

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz was asked, “Do you believe in soulmates?” 

He said, “It’s quite true that God decides before we’re born who the right spouse is for us, but it is not necessarily true that God decides such a couple will be happy.”

After a person reads Torah for the benefit of the congregation, we say to them, “Yasher Koach!”