All Classes

Why Didn’t a Good G-d Provide for All Our Needs? And What Was It About the Labor Abaraham Observed in the Land of Canaan that Inspired His Love for the Country?

When Your Spouse Disagrees With You. The blessings of opposition: How two words in Genesis -- "a helper against him" -- capture the essence of gender-relationships

Why Do the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer? The king allowed all of his subjects to make a wish, but while everyone asked for their needs, only one person thought of the king.

"You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and ignore them; return them to your brother... So shall you do with his ass, so shall you do with his garment, and so shall you do with every lost thing of your brother" -- Deuteronomy 22:1-3. 

Obviously, the duty to return a lost object to its owner is not limited to oxen, sheep, asses, and garments, but applies—as the verse concludes—to “every lost thing of your brother.” The Talmud explains that the Torah cites these examples because each of them teaches us another of the laws regarding lost objects. However, while it deciphers the laws to be derived from “ox,” “ass,” and “garment,” it does not succeed in doing so in the case of the “sheep.”

"The lost sheep is a difficulty,” concludes the Talmud, meaning that the legal significance of the word “sheep” in the verse proved difficult for the sages.

Accordingly, the mitzvah of returning a lost object applies not only to the physical property of one’s fellow but to his spiritual possessions as well. If you encounter a life gone astray—a confused mind, a dysfunctional heart, a soul that has lost its moral compass or spiritual sensitivity—restore it to its owner. You may not remain indifferent to the spiritual plight of a brother any more than you may ignore his wayward ox.

The Zohar tells us that the Torah has both a body and a soul. The “body” of the Torah is its “physical” part—the historical events it recounts and the laws it legislates. But implicit in this body is a “soul,” a mystic dimension in which every story has its sublime analogy and every legal nuance its spiritual counterpart." "Specifically, the four examples of 'lost objects' enumerated by Torah correspond to four prototypical maladies of the human soul. Join us on a fascinating journey into the psychology of aggression, passivity, treachery and meekness.

A Talmudic story about Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua on a boat conveys the essence of leadership from a Jewish perspective.

King Rechavam was the son of perhaps the most popular king in Jewish history, King Solomon, yet the majority of the nation rebelled against him leading to the fragmentation of the kingdom, and the establishment of a rival kingdom.

In this class we will analyze the events leading up to this fateful split, and discover from the words of Rechavam his tragic mistake in his understanding of Jewish leadership, and conversely, what constitutes ideal Jewish leadership and kingship.

Who is the greater servant – the king or his subject? This is the great struggle of every person in a position of leadership.

Ambition vs. Integrity- A journey into the spiritual and psychological meaning behind the two signs for kosher fish -- Fins and Scales

The simple reading of the story goes like this: After the Jews created a Golden Calf, Moses smashed the stone tablets created by G-d, engraved with the Ten Commandments. Moses and G-d then ""debated"" the appropriate response to this transgression and it was decided that if the people would truly repent, G-d would give them a second chance. Moses hewed a second set of stone tablets; G-d engraved them also with the Ten Commandments, and Moses gave them to the Jewish people.

Yet a few major questions come to mind. 1. Moses, outraged by the sight of a golden calf erected by the Hebrews as a deity, smashed the stone tablets. He apparently felt that the Jews were undeserving of them, and that it would be inappropriate to give them this Divine gift. But why did Moses have to break and shatter the heavenly tablets? Moses could have hidden them or returned them to their heavenly maker?

This seems strange. Why would they place the broken tablets in the Holy of Holies? After all, these fragments were a constant reminder of the great moral failure of the Jewish people. Why not just disregard them, or deposit them in a safe isolated place?

2. The rabbis teach us that ""The whole tablets and the broken tablets nestled inside the Ark of the Covenant.

The Jews proceeded to gather the broken fragments of the first set of tablets and had them stored in the Ark, in the Tabernacle, together with the second whole tablets. Both sets of tablets were later taken into the Land of Israel and kept side by side in the Ark, situated in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem.

3. In its eulogy for Moses, the Torah chooses this episode of smashing the tablets as the highlight and climax of Moses’ achievements. Why does the Torah choose this tragic and devastating episode to capture the zenith of Moses’ life and as the theme with which to conclude the entire Torah, all five books of Moses?!

This class, using as a springboard two seemingly superfluous words in Eikev, will examine this entire episode from a deeper vantage point. It tells the story of all forms of brokenness in the human journey."

What is the secret of success in educating and inspiring your children and students? An ancient Talmudic episode regarding an exchanger between Jacob and his children on his deathbed captures the answer.

“Just as in your heart there is only One, so too in our heart there is only One:” Children are the mirror oftheir parents’ hearts.

A textual reflection on the portion of “Shema” demonstrates the point that only that which lay deeply in our hearts will resonate with our children in the depth of their hearts.

The Sin of Comparing Trees: Exploring the inner world of the enigmatic “wood-gatherer”

It was the worst crisis in Moses' life. Incited by the 'mixed multitude', the Israelites complain about the food: 'If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost; the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna.

It was an appalling show of ingratitude, but not the first time the Israelites had behaved this way. Three similar episodes occurred previously and are recorded in the book of Exodus. Yet Moses' reaction this time is dramatically different: “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me! If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now - if I have found favor in Your eyes - and do not let me face my own ruin.”

What triggered this despair? And how did G-d respond and comfort him? And if Moses felt that the burden of leadership was unbearable, what gave him the strength to continue? One possible answer to these questions provides a simple but moving lesson in the importance for a student or disciple to give feedback and express appreciation to his mentor, even when the student thinks that his successes are completely insignificant in the shadow of his teacher’s greatness. A fascinating encounter between the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneerson, and Dr. Sigmund Freud in 1903.